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ENTEN-:- 

Thoughts. 




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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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HOW TO KEEP LENT. 






A. MISSIOiSrAR.Y PR.IKSX. 




New Yobk : 

H. J. HEWITT, PRINTER, 

27 KosE Street. 

1886. 






5nu>rimatur : 



MICHAEL AUGUSTINUS, 

Arcliiep. Neo Ebo7'acensi8. 



February 26, 1886. 



The Library 
OF Congress 



^^- . NGTON 



Copyright, 1886, by H, J. Hewitt, 






CONTENTS. 







PA6B 




Preface, . . . . 


5 


I. 


The Catholic's Hour, . 


9 


11. 


The Season" of Lent, . 


23 


III. 


PREPAEATIOlSr FOR LeISTT, 


57 


IV. 


Fasting, 


103 


V. 


Almsdeeds, . 


. 143 


VL 


Prayer, 


. 169 


VII. 


Easter Duties, 


. 191 



PREFACE. 



This book is intended for the peo^ 
pie. It is simply and plainly written, 
so that all who read may understand. 

Its object is to urge the lukewarm 
Catholic to a more generous observ- 
ance of Lent, and to bring the negli- 
gent to his Easter duties. 

It is not a collection of treatises, 
but a collection of thoughts on Lent. 
The work of development is left to 
the reader. One thought will strike 
one person, one another. It is the 
author's hope that the book may not 
be read and then cast aside, but taken 
up now and then in Lent, opened at 
any page, and if any thought strike 
the reader let him evolve and develop 



6 PREFACE. 

it, and dwell upon it so long as it in- 
terests him. 

I would ask those who have tlie 
means, if they find this book useful, 
to present some copies of it to their 
pastor for distribution among the poor 
and negligent of the flock, and the 
sick in the hospitals. 

I venture to make this request be- 
cause the proceeds arising from the 
sale of this book will be devoted to a 
work of charity I have near at heart. 

St. Charles says that one soul is 
diocese enough for a bishop. If this 
book shall be the means of rousing 
one lukewarm Catholic from his leth- 
argy, or of bringing home one out- 
cast to his Easter duties, all praise 
and glory to God ! 

The Author. 

Feast of the Purification, 
New York, 1886. 



I. 

The Catholic's Hour. 



^be Catbolic'a 1boun 



The works of Lent are: 

Fasting, 

Almsdeeds, 

Prayer, 

Confession, and 

Holy Commnnion. 
Of these the greatest is Holy Com- 
munion. 

These works are binding on all Ca- 
tholics in a greater or less degree. Al- 
mighty God asks no man to do any- 
thing beyond his strength. 

There is no Catholic, therefore, be 
he ever so weak and infirm, who can- 
not perform the work of fasting ; no 
Catholic, be he ever so poor, who can- 
not perform the work of almsdeeds ; 



10 LENTEiH" THOUGHTS. 

no Catholic, be he ever so busily en- 
gaged, who cannot pray. 

Finally, there is no Catholic, let his 
poverty, infirmity, and occupation be 
ever so great, who cannot make his 
confession and receive Holy Commu- 
nion. 

''Easter duties" is the familiar 
term by which we denote the works of 
confession and Communion. 

The first three of the works of Lent 
— viz., fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer — 
are the preparation for the fourth, con- 
fession ; and all four prepare us for the 
last and greatest. Holy Communion. 

In one word, then, the great work of 
Lent is contained in the term ''Easter 
duties"— a work dear to the heart of 
every faithful Catholic. 

II. 

Our Divine Eedeemer longed for tlie 
hour of His death. This hour was to 
Him the dearest of all the hours He 



THE catholic's HOUK 11 

spent on earth. So much did He lovo 
this hour that He called it "His own 
hour." For in this, the last hour of 
His mortal life, He was to give man- 
kind an unmistakable proof of His 
love. 

" What greater love can one man 
show for another than to lay down his 
life for him? " 

Our dear Lord might have ransom- 
ed us without any suffering. One tear 
of His would have sufficed. But He 
chose a life of sorrow and contempt, 
and a death of ignominy even to the 
expiring on a cross, in order that w^e 
might be convinced of His great love. 

Throughout His life the horrors and 
ignominies of the Crucifixion were ever 
present to His mind. The thoughts of 
the horrible death He was to suffer 
so straitened Him in the garden of 
Getlisemani that He prayed His hea- 
venly Father to suffer the bitter chal- 
ice to pass from Him. 



12 LENTEJsf THOUGHTS. 

His love of US, however, was greater 
and stronger than His fear of death, 
awful as was that death. Hence He 
had but one longing desire for the hour 
oi His death, for in that hour His love 
would be fully manifested to mankind. 

Hence He was accustomed to say in 
His lifetime: ''I have a bai)tisni, 
wherewith I am to be baptized, and 
liow am I straitened till it be accom- 
plished T' 

III. 

A Catholic worthy of the name longs 
for the hour of his Easter duties. The 
hour of his Easter duties is the Catho- 
lic's " own hour." 

In that hour he gives i)roof of loyal- 
ty to his faith and to his Church ; in 
that hour he gives proof of his love for 
his Divine Master. 

Onr Lord's preparation for His hour 
was fearful and terrible beyond all 



THE catholic's HOUR. 13 

human power of thought and expres- 
sion. 

Thirty-three years of humiliation 
and suffering. Thirty-three years of 
fasting, of almsdeeds, and of prayer. 
A lifelong Lent, and that life the life 
of n God-man. 

His courage never failed Him, so ar- 
dently did He long for the hour of 
His love. 

The Catholic's preparation for his 
hour is six weeks of fasting, almsdeeds, 
and prayer. 

We are fallen creatures and should 
ever be humble. To be anything else 
but humble at any moment of our life, 
much less in Lent, is in us a sin. 

And the fasting, the almsdeeds, and 
the prayer of even the best of us, nay, 
of a world or of a thousand worlds of 
saints, is not to be compared with the 
fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer of Je- 
sus, for He was God. 



14 LEi^TEN THOUGHTS. 



IV. 



The hour which Jesus called " His 
own hour" — who shall speak to us 
of that hour ? An angel's tongue were 
needed, yet an angel could not tell us 
of all the suffering, of all the agony, 
that was compressed . into that one 
hour. 

All Ave know is that there was so 
much suffering, so much agony, so 
much love that Jesus died. And Je- 
sus was God. 

What wonder that the sun refused 
to give its light and that the hard 
rocks were split in two ! 

The Catholic's hour! An hour of 
love, an hour of ineffable happiness ; 
to receive into our souls as food the 
Body and Blood, the Soul and Divin- 
ity, of our Lord. 

The body of the lovely Babe of Beth- 
lehem, of the beautiful Boy of Naza- 
reth, the body which hung on the 



THE catholic's HOUR 15 

cross, is the selfsame as the food we 
receive in Holy Commiinion. 

We love and cherish tenderly the 
tokens of love given to us by a friend 
in the hour of his death. Ere Jesus 
died He left us no mere gift or me- 
morial, but His own self. His Body, 
Blood, Soul, and Divinity. 

"Many have desired to see the 
things which you see, and have not 
seen them." What would not the pa- 
triarchs and saints of old have given 
for this one hour which every Catholic 
now possesses ? 

The holy old man Simeon longed and 
prayed that he might see his Saviour 
before he died. And the old man 
was privileged to hold tlie Divine Child 
in his arms, to gaze upon Him, to 
touch Him, to present Him to His Eter- 
nal Father. And the old man's soul 
was so full of Joy that he could only 
weep and cry: ''Now Thou dost dis- 
miss Thy servant, O Lord, according 



16 LENTEJs^ THOUGHTS. 

to Thy word in peace ; because my 
eyes have seen Thy salvation, which 
Thou hast prepared before the face of 
all people ; a light to the revelation of 
the Gentiles, and the glory of Thy peo- 
ple of Israel." 

What was Simeon's privilege com- 
pared to ours ? That Divine Child 
whom Simeon only held in his arms 
enters our bodies, makes us His taber- 
nacles, takes up His abode with us, 
and unites His own fond Heart so 
closely to ours that a closer, more in- 
timate union were not possible. 



O God ! we ought to be ashamed of 
ourselves to have to confess that there 
are many Catholics so wanting in love 
as to be afraid of the preparation that 
is needed for this hour of unspeakable 
joy. 

To think of the number of those who 



^1 



THE catholic's HOUR. 17 

grudge this one hour to their God, who 
wilfully neglect their Easter duties ! 

Such are deservedly threatened with 
excommnnication ; and if they incur 
this dreadful penalty, then the Church 
will no longer own them for her chil- 
dren. She will not tolerate them. 

Will God tolerate them ? He says to 
His Church: ''He who hears you 
hears me ; he who despises you de- 
spises me." 

After such a season of grace as Lent 
God shows His wrath and visits His 
j)eople, and inflicts sudden and violent 
deaths upon those w^lio wilfully refuse 
to give Him this one hour. 

What wonder that of the many who 
are called so few are chosen ? 

VI. 

" A certain man made a great supper 
and invited many. 

''And he sent his servant at supper- 



18 LEXTEX THOUGHTS. 

time to say to tliem that were invited 
that tliev should come, for now all 
thino's are readv. 

'•And they began all at once to 
make excuse. The first said to him : 
I have bought a farm, and 1 must 
needs go out and see it : I pray thee 
hold me excused. 

''And another said: I have bought 
five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them. 
I pray thee hold me excused. 

''And another said : I have married 
a wife, and therefore I cannot come. 

''And the servant leturniug told 
these things to his lord. Then the 
master of the house, being angry, said 
to his servant : Go out quickly into the 
streets and lanes of the city, and bring 
in hither the poor, and the feeble, and 
the blind, and the lame. 

"And the servant said: Lord, it is 
done as thou hast commanded, and yet 
there is room. 

" And the lord said to the servant: 



THE catholic's HOUR. 19 

Go out into the liigliways and hedges, 
and compel them to come in, that my 
house may be filled. 

"But I say to you that none of 
those men that were invited shall taste 
of my supper" (St. Luke xiv.) 

With such jpaltry and unpardonable 
excuses do we j)ut off and insult God. 

One man is so wrapped up in the en- 
joyment of earthly goods and riches 
that he is indifferent to salvation. 

The business man has no time for 
the affair of salvation. 

The carnal and sensual man has no 
taste for the things of God. 

Yet such men, when they are reprov- 
ed by their pastor and told that they 
have no faith, are indignant and de- 
clare that they would die for the faith. 

Our Lord's hour was an hour of love, 
but an hour of suffering, of agony, and 
of death. The Catholic's hour is an 
hour of love and an hour of unmixed 



20 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

Our dear Lord showed no mercy to 
Himself, but is full of mercy towards 
lis. As a sign of your love and your 
faith He does not ask you to die ; He 
only asks you to let Him, once a year, 
take up Ms abode with you. 

If you will not do this, then do 
whatever else you will, only remember 
the warning of the Gospel, for it is in- 
tended for you : 

"But I say unto you that none of 
those that were invited shall taste of 
my supper/' 

Because I have invited you to Holy 
Communion, and you have not come, 
not one of you shall taste of the ban- 
quet which I have prepared in the 
kingdom of my glory. 



II. 

The Season of Lent. 



^be Seaaon of Xent 



'' Behold now is the acceptable time, 
behold now is the day of salvation" 
(2 Cor. vi.) 

Ash-AVednesday is the index to 
Lent. It tells ns the meaning of Lent. 
It is not a day by itself, but the first 
day of a period of time, called by the 
Church the "acceptable time." It is 
the first only of the forty days of public 
penance, which is binding in a greater 
or less degree upon all Christians who 
have come to the use of reason. 

''Blow the trumpet in Sion, sanctify 
a fast, call a solemn assembly, gath- 
er together the people. Between the 
porch and the altar the priests, the 



24 le:n^tex thoughts. 

Lord's ministers, shall weep and shall 
say : Spare, O Lord, spare thy people " 
(2 Joel, 15, 16). 

The Church, usually so rich and 
grand in her ceremonies, on Ash-Wed- 
nesday, the beginning of the ''day of 
salvation," gathers together her people 
for a ceremony unusually simple in its 
externals, yet one wliich contains with- 
in it depths of meaning. 

11. 

On Palm Sunday of last year the 
Church blessed branches of palm, and 
gave a branch to each of her children. 
Holding these palms in our hands, we 
walked in procession through the 
church, and, like the Jews of old, our 
voices sang out, " Hosanna to the Son 
of David," the song of the only one 
triumph our Lord permitted Himself 
during His life on earth. 

On the first Palm Sunday the Jews 



THE SEASOK OF LENT. 25 

bore their Lord and King in triumph 
into Jerusalem, and, waving pahn- 
branches in their hands, made the 
streets resound again and again with 
their joyous hosaniias. 

We can hardly believe it. On the 
Friday of the very same week the 
voices of these same Jews svfelled the 
cry which raised their Lord and King 
on the ignominious Cross. 

Holy Scripture tells us that the cen- 
turion and they that were with him, 
when they saw the wonderful things 
that took place on the death of our Di- 
vine Redeemer, were sore afraid, and 
returned home striking their breasts, 
saying: ''Truly this was the Son of 
God." 

Now, if, when the centurion and the 
multitude reached their homes, they 
had seized upon the palms used in the 
Sunday^ s procession, and burnt tliem 
to ashes, and placed the ashes uj)on 
their heads, and implored mercy and 



26 LENTEl!^r THOUGHTS^ 

pardon for the terrible share they had 
taken in the murder of their God, we 
should cry out, What act more likely 
to appease the God whom they had 
slain ? What end more fitting for these 
palms l 

We, too, last Palm Sunday joined in 
the procession, and welcomed our God 
and King with many ^'Hosannas." O 
God ! how many of us since then have 
crucified Thee over again by mortal 
sin ! 

So these palms of last year are burnt 
and reduced to ashes. And on Ash- 
Wednesday these ashes are blessed, 
and the Church throughout the world 
gathers together her children^ places 
these ashes upon their heads, and re- 
minds them of. their mortality in the 
memorable words used by Almighty 
God when He pronounced sentence of 
death on our first parents : " Remem- 
ber, man, that thou art dust, and unto 
dust thou shalt return.'' 



THE SEASON OF LEKT. 27 

Such the simple yet beautiful cere- 
mony for which the Church assembles 
her cbildren. What lessons it teaches 
us ! Of how much does it remind us ! 



III. 

The Church covers us with ashes, in 
order to imprint indelibly upon our 
hearts those words first uttered by God 
Ab^nighty Himself — words which, even 
at this distance of nearly six thousand 
years of time, have not lost one jot or 
one tittle of their force : '' Remember, 
man, that thou art dust, and unto dust 
thou shalt return." 

And who shall be rash enough to say 
that there is no need of this reminder ? 
Or who shall furthermore presume to 
tell us that to forget this warning of 
God is not a crime ? 

Go back, in spirit, to the commence- 
ment of the world. Behold this earth 
and all living creatures on it, with a 



28 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

freshness and a beauty about them 
which tell us they have just come 
from the hands of their Creator. 

The Creator Himself has looked 
down upon His work. It was fair and 
beautiful to behold. He saw Himself 
reflected in every part of it, and He 
blessed it and pronounced it good. 

Of the living creatures there are two 
forms which especially strike us with 
admiration — the forms of our first pa- 
rents. 

Their grace, their beauty, their no- 
bility tell us at a glance that they are 
the lords for whom this earth has been 
so beautifully fashioned. 

Their souls are in a state of original 
justice, endowed with godlike gifts ; 
so much like to their Creator that 
they are never njore to cease to exist. 

Their bodies, the temples of these 
souls, surpass all else on earth in grace 
and beauty ; and though made of the 
earth, they were never to fade or crum- 



THE SEASOI^ OF LEIsTT. 29 

ble av/ay to dust, but to flourish, even 
after myriads of ages, in celestial youth 
and beauty. 
They are the children of God. 

IV. 

Alas ! in a moment of pride, forget- 
ting they were dust, they would be- 
come like and equal to their Creator, 
and they rebelled against Him. 

In that moment they are hurled 
down from their high pedestal of grace 
and beauty. 

Their souls, as hideous now as they 
were before graceful in the sight of 
God, are doomed, unless the mercy of 
God intervene, to an everlasting death, 
a living death which will never con- 
sume them. 

Of their bodies, till now so pure and 
hallowed, they are ashamed, destined, 
as they are, to hunger and cold, to 
poverty, sickness, death, rottenness, 
and decay. 



30 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

Yes, these bodies must crumble 
away, and mingle once more with the 
earth from which they were taken, to 
be trampled under foot by the future 
generations of their children. 

This doom they brought not alone 
upon themselves, but upon the myriads 
also of the children who were to spring 
from them. 

They were humbled, levelled to the 
very dust. 

In that moment they and we were 
children of wrath and outcasts from 
our Fathers home. 

V. 

What child of Adam shall look upon 
this picture, and then dare to say he 
can forget his origin wath impunity ? 

How often, alas ! we forget it ! How 
seldom, indeed, we think of it ! How 
much need in every year for such a 
season as Lent ! 

Look around us. Why is there so 



THE SEASOI!^ OF LENT. 31 

much pomp, and luxury, and extrava- 
gance in the world ? 

Why is so much time given to deck- 
ing out, and to considering how to deck 
out, these bodies of clay ? 

Why is so much pride and conceit 
displayed by those in high places 1 

Why so much contempt for the 
poor ? 

Why, in a word, do so many so use 
their bodies as if, of the soul and 
body, the body were the more precious 
of the two ? 

There is surely need, then, to remind 
men of their origin. There is need to 
remind them that, whether a child be 
black or white, beautiful or uncomely, 
born in a hovel or in a palace, clothed 
in the rags of poverty or in purple and 
fine linen, that child's origin is still the 
same. It springs from tlie slime of 
the earth. 

This is the truth which the Church, 
by her ceremony from which the day 



32 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

takes its name, would impress not 
alone- upon her own children, but upon 
all mankind : 

' ' Remember, man, that thou art dust, 
and unto dust thou shalt return." 

yi. 

Mindful of our origin, we shall not 
lose sight of our end. No matter how 
much care we may take to preserve 
these bodies, they must decay, they 
must pass to the earth from which 
they were taken. 

The bodies of some eighty thousand 
of our fellow- creatures are each day 
borne away far from the homes of the 
living, and laid low in the earth to 
mingle with it. 

" Remember, man, that thou art dust, 
and unto dust thou shalt return." 

In what more fitting, more effective, 
or more striking manner could holy 
Church prepare us for the great work 
of Lent ? 



THE SEASOIir OF LEIS^T. 33 

As Ash- Wednesday is but the first 
day of Lent, of a period of time, so the 
warnirig must be in our minds and 
hearts during the whole of Lent. 

Before the altar of God we make a 
public act of humiliation. Humbled, 
we see the heinousness of our crimes 
and ingratitude as we have never be- 
fore seen it. 

This disposition begets an earnest de- 
sire to do penance and live up to the 
spirit of Lent ; and the fulfilment of 
this desire leads us on to a more per- 
fect love of God, which is the essence 
of perfection, the end for which we 
were made, and in which alone our true 
happiness consists both in time and 
eternity. 

VIL 

Lent, then, calls us to take account 
of oursL Ives before God. It calls us 
to search into our souls and see how 
we stand before God, 



3i LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

There is, therefore, no period in the 
whole course of the Christian's year 
so valuable, and as a consequence so 
much to be prized, as the forty days 
of Lent. 

Lent is the '' acceptable time." 
There is no time when our actions are 
so pleasing to God. 

Lent is the ''day of salvation." 
There is no time when Almighty Grod 
dispenses His graces so freely and so 
abundantly. 

Lent is the acceptable time and a 
day of salvation to us according to the 
manner in which we spend it. 

If, during these days of public pen- 
ance, God is liberal and generous to- 
wards those even who make but slight 
efforts, let us not forget that He is 
equally strict and severe with those 
who spend the time of Lent carelessly 
and indifferently, and who abuse the 
graces and opportunities offered to 
them at this holy season. 



THE SEASON OF LENT. 35 

Lent, then, according as we use it or 
abuse it, is a day of salvation or a day 
of damnation. 

To abuse Lent is to seek eternal 
death. 

VIII. 

We have before us, then, six weeks 
of hard work, and work, too, of a seri- 
ous nature. Still, it is our own fault. 
If a man breaks the laws of the state 
he must suffer the penalties ordained 
by those laws. So if we break the 
laws of God must we suffer the pun- 
ishment ordained by Divine Justice. 

God is merciful and God is just. His 
mercy is infinite. His justice is infinite, 
and man's debts must be paid to the 
last farthing. 

In His mercy He gives us a choice : 
voluntary penance in this life, or forced 
punishment in the next. 

A little voluntary pain is of greater 



36 LEKTEN^ THOUGHTS. 

value, and gives more ample satisfac- 
tion, than greater pain v^hen forced. 

When we come to think of it, we 
have done very little real, voluntary 
penance in our lifetime. Yet what a 
load of sin ! what an awful debt of tem- 
poral punishment ! 

A man deliberately slays a fellow- 
creature. He is condemned by the 
laws of the state to death. Say he is 
reprieved. What does this mean ? 
Does the law, by remitting the capital 
punishment, allow him to go free ? K^o, 
he is still a captive of the law in penal 
servitude for life. 

A Christian deliberately commits a 
deadly sin. He thereby loses all right 
to tlie kingdom of heaven and deserves 
eternal punishment. Grace is given to 
him and he makes a good confession. 
He is reprieved. By the power of God, 
exercised, in the sacred tribunal of pen- 
ance, heaven is once more open to him 
and he escapes the fires of hell. But 



THE SEASOIST OF LENT. 37 

what a huge debt of temporal punish- 
ment remains ! If God held him cap- 
tive in the fires of purgatory till the 
day of judgment, wliat man would dare 
to call in question the justice of God ? 

This debt must be paid to the justice 
of God either by voluntary penance in 
this world or by the fire of purgatory 
in the next. All praise and gratitude 
to the mercy of God that we have such 
a choice ! 

How often it happens that a Chris- 
tian, after being absolved of a dead- 
ly sin, contents himself with the few 
prayers given him as a penance by 
his confessor ! Like the lepers of 
old, he perhaps forgets even to give 
thanks for the great mercy that has 
been shown him. How patient is God ! 

Reader, search into your heart and 
see if you have ever had the misfortune 
to sin unto death. And then ask your- 
self. What voluntary penance have I 
ever done for this sin ? 



33 LEKTEX THOUGHTS. 

What motives for a downright, ear- 
nest observance of Lent ! Let us thank 
(rod that He gives ns each year such a 
season as Lent. Men would never of 
their own accord appoint such a time. 

IX. 

''God does not desire the death of 
any sinner, but rather that he be con- 
verted and live." 

What a source of joy and strength 
these words are to the Christian ! You 
realize the truth of these words in Lent. 
They come straight liome to you. The 
very fact that God gives you another 
I^ent is a proof of His desire to save 
you. 

''Why will ye die?" says God. 
*'You will not come to me that 
you may have life" (St. John v. 
40). 

What words of comfort ! Only come 
to God in Lent, only return to Him ; no 
matter how long it is since you strayed 



THE SEASON OF LEKT. 39 

from Him, whatever be tlie nature and 
number of your sins, be you a prodigal 
or a Magdalen, only return to Him, and 
He will give you life. God could not 
ask less. 

From the many words of our Divine 
Lord we derive unbounded hope, im- 
mense strength. What we really want 
to secure a successful Lent, to make 
Lent easy, is true sorrow for the sins 
we have committed. Sorrow for sin is 
one of Grod's gifts. We must ask for 
it. "Ask, and you shall receive," He 
says. Surely no easier condition could 
be required of us. And He who makes 
the condition is our Father, and there 
is no Father like Him. 

With what hope, joy, and courage 
should we undertake the penitential 
works of Lent ! 



St. Bernard says: "Now our Saviour 
and Head assaults the devil in a gen- 



40 LEKTEl^ THOUGHTS. 

eral engagepieiit, with the ■anited forces 
of His whole army collected together 
over the whole world. Blessed are 
they who, under such a Captain, shall 
fight manfully." 

We are soldiers of Christ, and for 
the Christian soldier Lent is the dny 
of battle. The most powerful w^eapons 
are placed in our hands : the weapons 
of fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer — w^ea- 
pons w^liich have never yet been over- 
come, and against which all the pow- 
ers of darkness cannot prevail. 

We shall see the power and effi- 
cacy of these weapons when we come 
to treat of each of them in detail. 

Every soldier of Christ, without ex- 
ception, must put on the armor of 
Lent and make the best use he can of 
the weapons of Lent. They are placed 
in the hands of the rich and the poor, 
the young and the old, tlie sick and 
the strong, the saints and the sinners. 

And the rich are made poor in spirit, 



THE SEASON OF LENT. 



41 



and they are blessed, because theirs is 
the kingdom of heaven. 

And the poor are made patient and 
suffer persecution for justice' sake, and 
they are blessed, for tlieirs is the king- 
dom of heaven. 

And the young hunger and thirst 
after justice, and they are blessed, for 
they shall have their fill. 

And the old are made meek, and they 
are blessed, for they shall possess the 
land. 

And the sick mourn, and they are 
blessed, for they shall be comforted. 

And the strong are made merciful, 
and they are blessed, for they shall 
obtain mercy. 

And the saints become peacemakers, 
and tliey are blessed, for they shall be 
called the children of God. 

And the poor sinners are made clean 
of heart, and tliey are blessed, for they 
shall see God. 

Such are the fruits of victory. 



42 LENTEI^ THOUGHTS. 



XI. 



In the day of battle soldiers are 
called upon to undergo great hard- 
ships, to risk even their very lives for 
an earthly king, and the victory is ever 
doubtful. 

Our King, alone and unaided, en- 
gaged in the gigantic struggle with sin 
and the powers of darkness. He fought 
and won. When all hell was rejoicing 
over the fancied victory of Good Fri- 
day our King arose when He said He 
would. The valiant Lion of Judah had 
trampled under His feet principalities 
and powers, and He arose triumphant 
and glorious. His victory proved that 
He was God as well as man, and it 
gave emancipation to a world of slaves. 

Still Satan attacks our King through 
us, His subjects. He never Avearies in 
the struggle to obtain the possession of 
his lost dominions. So we must fight ; 
and our King, by His victory, forged 



THE SEASON OF LENT. 43 

for US the weapons of fasting, alms- 
deeds, and prayer, which make us in- 
vuhierable and secure of victory. 

No eartlily king ever cared for his 
soldiers as our King cares for us. No 
earthly king ever armed his soldiers 
for battle as our King arms us for the 
sx)iritual warfare. 

The martyrs, our fellow-soldiers in 
the spiritual warfare, were asked to lay 
down their lives in thousands. They 
were not found wanting. In these days 
we are not asked to risk our lives. We 
are only asked to fast, to give alms, to 
pray. We are asked to risk nothing. 
All is gain. Shall we be found want- 
ing ? 

Victory, certainty of success — this 
is the Christian's great source of cour- 
age and strength. 

The sinner must fight to become a 
saint ; the saint must fight to remain a 
saint. 



M leot:ek thoughts. 

XII. 

Sunday after Sunday, and day by 
day J in Lent, the Cliurcli, with all a 
mother's tenderness, speaks to her chil- 
dren. 

She is anxious for the salvation of 
each and every one of the children 
whom God has entrusted to her kee]3- 
ing. On Easter Sunday she desires to 
make an offering to God of her count- 
less children, pure, spotless, and holy. 
'' Holy Father, those whom Thou hast 
given me have I kept, and none of them 
is lost.'' 

Never, therefore, does she tire in in- 
viting her sinful children to repentance, 
but at no time more than in Lent does 
she so ardently and so eagerly endeavor 
to impress the necessity of penance 
upon sinners. 

She redoubles now her zeal and her 
solicitude for the conversion of all 
sinners, and incessantly exhorts them 



THE SEASOK OF LEN^T. 45 

in the words of the prophet Isaias : 
' ' Let the wicked man forsake his way, 
and the nnjust man his thonghts, and 
let him return to the Lord, and He 
will have mercy upon him." 

In qnality of sinners, in quality, too, 
of followers of a leader whose whole 
life was one act of penance and morti- 
fication, we are bound at all times to 
practise the virtue of penance, but at 
no time more particularly than during 
the holy season of Lent, which the 
Church styles the accej) table time and 
the day of salvation. 

XIIL 

Lent is the pastor's harvest-time. 
From Ash- Wednesday till Easter there 
is no rest for him ; yet in prayer, and 
fasting, and almsdeeds he must head 
his flock. 

His divine office is much longer than 
usual. The services in the church are 
more numerous. He preaches more fre- 



46 LEKTEK THOUGHTS. 

quently, with greater earnestness, ar.d 
with greater care, for he knows how 
valuable is the time of Lent. 

There is no hour in which he may 
not be called upon to hear confessions. 
Some poor prodigal returns, some poor 
softened sinner, who has long been a 
stranger to the confessional, returns 
home. The time may be inconvenient, 
yet he dare not send him away ; he 
might faint on the way, and Lent is 
the day of salvation. 

With anxious care he tells up the 
number of the negligent of his flock. 
They must be his special care in Lent. 
They must be sought after in the lanes 
and byways of his parish, and brought 
home to their Easter duties. 

Each day he counts up the number 
of those who have made their Easter 
duties. Each day he notices, with a 
heart full of gratitude to God, the large, 
unusual attendance at the sacrifice of 
the Mass. And Avhat joy on earth can 



THE SEASON OF LEKT. 47 

be compared to his when there comes 
to his confessional a jDOor, sorroAvfnl 
sinner who has long been an outcast ? 

In Lent the pastor sees the fruits of 
all his labors of the past year, of his 
Masses and of his prayers, of his ser- 
mons from the pulpit and of his coun- 
sels in the confessional, and of his fre- 
quent pastoral visits to his flock. 

For the priest there is no time like 
Lent. A little zeal, and a wonderful 
harvest is reaped. 

XIV. 

What a wonderful effect the faithful 
observance of Lent has uiion the out- 
side world ! 

An author writing in 1685 says 
''that it is found by experience that 
the religious observance of Lent is a 
mighty restraint to profaneness and de- 
bauchery. It hath been a matter of 
wonder to travellers to see what an ax^ 



48 LENTElsr THOUGHTS. 

pearance, at least, of demiireness, so- 
briety, and seriousness all men gene- 
rally take upon them at this time." 

A great Protestant traveller of the 
same date, wLen speaking of Ita- 
ly, says " that, notwithstanding the 
growth of vice, the people of all sorts 
are much reformed during Lent ; no 
blasphemies or foul w^ords as before ; 
their vanity of all sorts is laid reason- 
ably aside, their pleasures abandoned, 
their apparel, their diet, and all things 
else composed to austerity and a state 
of penitence. They have tbeir daily 
sermons, with collection of alms, to 
which all men resort, and, to judge by 
their outward show, they seem gene- 
rally to have great remorse for their 
sins ; insomuch that I must confess I 
seemed to myself in Italy to have best 
learned the right use of Lent, tliere 
first to have discerned the great fruit 
of it and the reasons for which those 
sages in the Church first instituted it. 



THE SEASOK OF LE^^T. 49 

Neither can I yield to the fancies of 
those who, because we onght at all 
times to lead lives worthy of our pro- 
fession, think it superstitious to have 
any time in which we are to exact or 
expect it more than another, but con- 
ceive that it is a hard matter to hold 
men within the lists of piety, and that 
it is therefore fitting that there should 
be a time in the year, and that of a 
reasonable continuance, to restrain men, 
to recall them to more serious thoughts 
and courses, lest sin, by having no bri- 
dle, should become headstrong and un- 
conquerable, and men be inured to 
vice." 

A religious observance of Lent would 
produce many converts. Many are 
kept outside of the Church because of 
the many unpractical Catholics among 
us. For the sake of our faith, for tlie 
honor of our Church, let us be worthy 
of ourselves in Lent. 

Missions are often given in Lent. 



50 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

They are certainly effective and will al- 
ways draw a crowded church. 

I should like to see a mission used as 
a preparation for Lent, to commence 
on Septuagesima and close on Ash- 
Wednesday. 

Many thousands would receive Holy 
Communion on Ash- Wednesday. What 
a grand opening of Lent ! What a 
wonderful help to the pastor !" 

I would rather see a church crowded 
in Lent, because of Lent, than because 
of a mission. 

XV. 

As far as our worldly occupations 
will permit, we must keep up a spirit 
of recollection and retirement in Lent. 

Solitude is the asylum of innocence, 
the region Ave need in times of penance 
and of prayer. 

It was the custom of the Fathers of 
the desert to choose in Lent some 
more remote wilderness ; and St. Am- 



THE SEASON OF LENT. 51 

brose exhorts those who live in cities 
to inhabit a desert in mind and desire. 

Do not frequent, in Lent, theatres or 
places of amusement. Give no parties 
and accept invitations to none. 

Put aside all jewelry and finery in 
dress. Dress in a manner becoming to 
Lent. The Church clothes herself in 
mourning. Lent is a time of mourning. 
We mourn for our sins and for those 
of the world, and we mourn the terri- 
ble death those sins brought upon our 
dear Lord. 

XVL 

The trumpet has now sounded. We 
are warned to wake ourselves from our 
lethargy. 

What mercy may we not hope for 
when the whole Christian world, as one 
man, is engaged in works of penance. 

Millions on millions of Christians are 
besieging the throne of God, imploring 
mercy, grace, and salvation. 



52 LENTEI^ THOUGHTS. 

From tens of thousands of altars the 
Church, each day, raises her hands to 
heaven, crying out, "Spare, O Lord, 
spare Thy people." 

The gate of mercy, the treasures of 
heaven, are open to us. During these 
forty days the precious blood of tlie 
Divine Son cries aloud to His heavenly 
Father in behalf of sinners. The arms 
of our crucitied Saviour are widely ex- 
tended from the cross to embrace all 
who return to Him with contrite and 
humble hearts. 

"Now is the accei^table time. Now 
is the day of salvation." 

Almighty God must surely be very 
pleased at the sight of this universal 
offering of praise. He is full of mercy 
and easily moved. 

Lent is an epitome of man's life. It 
is man's life in miniature. A little 
suffering, a little sorrow, and then 
the unspeakable joys of Easter. 

When the farm^er is gathering in a 



THE SEASOK OF LENT. 53 

rich harvest he is so full of joy that 
he never thinks of the hardships he has 
suffered to raise the harvest. 

So when Easter comes we shall not 
think of the inconvenience it has cost 
us to perform the works of Lent ; we 
shall be so happy and so full of joy to 
feel that we have done something in re- 
turn for the great love which our dear 
Lord has disj^layed towards us. 

XVII. 

One other thought, and it is a pow- 
erful one. 

This may be my last Lent, my last 
call to grace and salvation. 

If you look round the church you 
will lind places empty which last Lent 
were filled by those you loved, and who 
were members with you of the same 
congregation. 

Last Lent was their last call to grace. 
They little thought it would be. They 



54 LEXTEX THOUGHTS. 

no more thought of dying than you do 
that this Lent will be your last. 

This thought, then, is a Avholesome 
thought, and surely will make us care- 
ful not to abuse the hoh^ season of 
Lent. 

'' A certain man had a fig-tree i)lanted 
in his vineyard, and he came seeking 
fruit on it, and found none. 

'•And he said to the dresser of the 
vineyard: Behold for these three years 
I come seeking fruit on this fig-tree, 
and I find none. Cut it down there- 
fore ; why cumbereth it the ground ? " 
(St. Luke xiii. 6). 

This may be the last Lent that God 
may visit you to seek fruit in your 
soul. Let us fear lest He find none, 
and, His i)atience exhausted. He cut 
us down and cast us into the fire. 

Certain it is that this Lent will be 
the last for many. Let each one so 
keep Lent as if he knew it were to be 
his last. 



III. 

Preparation for Lent. 



preparation for Xent 



This chapter touches two classes of 
Cliristians whose number is far from 
small : 

1. Those who make no preparation 
for Lent. 

2. Those who enter ui)on Lent in a 
state of sin, and remain in that state 
up to the time of fulfilling their Easter 
duties. 

Though Lent is a solemn yearly fast, 
a day of grace and a day of salvation, 
few make any preparation for it. 

Ash- Wednesday finds them uni)re- 
pared. They have not yet made up 
their minds as to what they are going 
to do in the way of fasting, almsdeeds, 



58 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

and prayer. They have entered upon 
Lent, and as yet have given no thought 
to it. 

Yon may hear people asking during 
the first week of Lent : '^ What are 
you going to do?" *'Are you going 
to fast ? " etc. ; and others answering : 
''I do not know" ; ''I don't think I 
can" ; " I must see my director," and 
so forth — treating the whole affair as 
one of slight importance, and as if the 
observance of Lent were a matter of 
choice or inclination. 

Hence several days of this tlie most 
valuable period of a Christian's life aie 
lost, and such people, if they keep 
Lent at all, do so in a lukewarm, half- 
hearted manner. 

II. 

He who realizes the value of Lent 
begins to prepare for it with the Church 
on Septuagesima Sundaj^ 

The word ' ' Septuagesima ' ' mean s 



PREPARATION POR LENT. 59 

the seventieth, and the Sunday is call- 
ed Sei3tuagesima, not alone because it 
is about the seventieth day before 
Easter, but also because the captivity 
of sin, from wliich our dear Lord came 
to deliver us about this holy time, was 
prefigured by the captivity of Babylon, 
which lasted seventy years. 

On this day the Church passes from 
Bethlehem to Calvary. She lays aside 
her alleluias and hymns of joy, iii 
which she has celebrated the joys of 
Christmas, and puts on the garb of a 
penitent. 

Why? To remind us, her children, 
that the season of public penance is 
near at hand, and that we ought to 
prepare for it in a befitting manner, if 
we expect to be reconciled with God 
and delivered from the bondage of 
sin. 

On this day, then, v/lien the Church 
clothes her altars and lier ministers in 
mourning attire, using only purple 



GO LEXTEX THOUGHTS. 

vestments, we iinist begin to think of 
and to prepare for Lent. 

III. 

The Chnrch selects for the Lessons 
of the Divine Office that portion of the 
Sacred Scriptnres which tells us the 
history of the creation and the fall of 
nmn. By reminding us of the sin of 
our first parents and of our own per- 
sonal sins she would urge us to do 
penance in Lent. 

The Epistle of Septuagesima teaches 
every Christian that as a soldier of 
Christ he is bound to penance and to 
constant watchfulness. 

St. Paul refei^ lo the public games. 
They who contest in these games mor- 
tify and deny themselves — ''refmin 
from all things.'' Yet only one can 
gain the j^rize, and that prize is a cor- 
ruptible crown. 

Here a thought naturally strikes us: 



PREPARATIO:?^ FOR LENT. 61 

the self-denial of worldlings. What 
is there that a worldling will not do 
and suffer for money ? Who can count 
up the toil, the hardships, the anxiety, 
the self-denial tliat most men under- 
go for every coin they earn ? 

The life of a Trappist monk is a 
severe course of penaiice. He sleeps in 
his habit on a truss of straw. At two 
o'clock in the morning he rises and 
goes to tlie church. He never speaks. 
He communicates his thoughts to a 
brother by signs. He never touches 
meat. The food he eats sustains life 
and that is all. Not to sx)eak of hu- 
miliations, disciplines, the austerities 
of fasting days, etc., his ordinary day 
from two A.M. till eight p.m., when he 
retires to his bundle of straw, is made 
up of long, hard hours in tjje church 
and of long, hard hours on the farm. 

I heard a Trappist monk say that 
when he was in the world he worked 
harder and suffered greater self denial 



63 LENTEX THOUGHTS. 

to earn tlie little money that enabled 
liim to live. 

For the faithful keeping of Lent a 
reward is offered to all. AVe must re- 
frain from certain things, and from 
everything that is out of harmony with 
the season of Lent. 

The self-denial that this will cause 
a Christian will not bear comparison 
with the self-denial of a worldling. 
And the crown that is offered is offer- 
ed to all, and is incorruptible. 

Our Divine Master does not, then, ask 
much of us. What a burning shame 
to us disciples of this Master who 
was crucified, if we have not courage 
enough to make some attempt to ob- 
serve Lent ; if we cannot do the little 
that is required of us for an incorrupti- 
ble crown,, when worldlings do so much 
for one that is corruptible ! 

Such are the thoughts to which this 
Epistle gives rise. And St. Paul, who 
uttered these inspired words, subjected 



PREPARATION FOR LEIS^T. 63 

liis own body to continual penance, 
lest, apostle though he was, he might 
become a castaway. 

With the weak, and the timid, and 
the cowardly God is not well pleased. 

IV. 

The Gosi)el of Septuagesima teaclies 
that no man can afford to be idle. The 
children of the A\^orld cannot ; much less, 
then, can the children of light. 

The Chnrch is God's vineyard npon 
earth, and we who are called to work 
must labor withont intermission by 
works of penance. 

The Gospel holds out encouragement 
to those w^ho have been negligent in 
tbe past. 

Let the man who in the past year 
has neglected his Easter dnties open 
his prayer-book and read this Gospel. 
He will hear his Divine Master saying 
to him at the eleventh hour: "Why 
stand you here all the day idle?" 



64 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

The Gospel will further tell him that 
the reward offered by his Master is 
measured not so much by the duration 
as by the fervor of his labor. 

Resolve to seize with all eagerness on 
the season of Lent. The fact of your 
having another Lent is a sign of God' s 
mercy and love. 

V. 

The Epistle of Sexagesima puts St. 
Paul before us as a model of humility 
and patience. 

Read this EiDistle, and dwell, if you 
can, without being moved, upon the 
terrible trials and sufferings of St. 
Paul. He never prayed for deliverance 
from these bodily sufferings. He knew 
that the disciple is not above the mas- 
ter. He was humble and patient. 

His spiritual trials were fearful ; he 
thrice besought the Lord that this 
sring of the flesh might depart from 
him. 



PREPARATION FOR LE:N'T. 65 

And his Lord answered: ''My grace 
is sufficient for thee ; for power is made 
perfect in infirmity." 

St. Paul was still humble and patient, 
and never uttered a more beautiful 
word than when he replied : " Gladly, 
therefore, will I glory in my infirmi- 
ties, that the power of Christ may 
dwell in me." 

We suffer bodily and spiritual trials. 
They are not to be compared with 
those of St. Paul. Yet, such as they 
are, we usually grumble and complain. 

For the most part we ourselves bring 
about our bodily sufferings. We lose 
sight of this fact, and, forgetting our 
past sins, Ave think we are hardly 
treated. 

In our spiritual trials we generally 
give way and are vanquished. 

We do not, either in our bodily or 
spiritual infirmities, give the power of 
Christ a chance of dwelling in us. Of 
how much honor we rob Him ! 



66 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

Let US bliisli for our want of courage, 
and pray for liumility, and patience 
Avill follow. Upon these two virtues 
the life of a penitent must be built. 

VI. 

The Gospel of Sexagesima our Divine 
Lord Himself exiDlains, and points out 
to us, in His own simple, inimitable 
language, the dispositions required for 
hearing and meditating on the word of 
God, so as to bring forth abundant 
fruit. 

About two thousand years ago the 
Divine Sower uttered these words, and 
v>as then, personally and with His OAvn 
divine hands, scattering the seeds of 
salvation. 

Prior to His coming He had scatter- 
ed the seed hj the hands of the patri- 
archs and the prophets, yet none the 
less lavishl}^ 

From the day of His Ascension to 
this present day He has been sowing 



PREPAKATIOIS' FOR LEKT. 67 

this seed, without stint and with no 
sparing hand, through the Church and 
lier sacraments, by the hands of the 
apostles and their successors. It has 
been cast freely upon the soil of your 
heart, and with what fruit you, reader, 
yourself can best tell. 

This seed is so lavishly scattered 
that some of it falls by the wayside and 
is trodden underfoot ; some is scatter- 
ed on ground overrun with thorns and 
l)riers ; other some falls even upon the 
hard rock. 

Of the four classes of men in whose 
souls this seed is sown, only one class 
bears fruit. 

We are tempted to say that this is 
an extravagant and even a wasteful 
sowing of this precious seed, but we 
remember the infinite love which this 
Divine Sower has for the souls of men. 

In our pride we forget that we are 
the soil, and live and act as though 
we were the sowers. 



CS LI.STES THOULtHTS. 

If we are favored with beauty of 
countenance or grace of figure, if we 
possess talents of any kind, we take all 
tlie merit to ourselves, and totally for- 
get that '"every best gift and every 
perfect gift cometh from above/' 

Lent will remind us that we are the 
8oil, and will sliow us how much or 
how little fruit we have borne in the 
past. 

VII. 

The Epistle for Quinquagesima — is 
there a more beautiful page in the 
wliole of the Sacred Scripture ? These 
words ought to be engi^aven upon the 
heart of every Chiistian. Thej' should 
be pondered on day by day. 

What a wonderful definition of char- 
ity^ St. Paul, though the most elo- 
quent of the apostles, never could 
have given us this definition had he 
not been insi^ired from above. 

Read carefully this Epistle. It re- 



PEEPARATIOK FOR LENT. GO 

quires no comment. And we are con- 
vinced of one truth — viz., that we shall 
derive very little fruit from Lent, if, 
before we enter uj)on it, we do not 
make our peace with God, our peace 
with our neighbor, and pardon tliose 
who may have injured us. 

This divine and fraternal charity is 
the end and perfection of our penance. 
Without this charity all the mortifi- 
cation of Lent will not avail yon to 
salvation. 

'' Forgive us our trespasses, as we 
forgive them that trespass against 
us." 

This little word as means a blessing 
or a curse. 

VIII. 

The Gospel of Quinquagesima re- 
minds us that the sufferings of our 
Divine Lord are the great object of ovir 
devotion during the whole of Lent. 

On every Friday, from the Friday of 



70 LEXTEK THOUGHTS. 

Septuagesima week to the great day of 
the anniversary of our Lord's death, is 
commemorated some portion of the 
Passion of our Redeemer ; and these 
Fridays are days of Plenary Indul- 
gence. 

If til ere is one thing we need in Lent, 
it is light. Spiritual blindness is the 
greatest obstacle to true conversion of 
heart. 

The poor blind man is told that 
'•Jesus of Nazareth is passing by." 
How long has he been waiting for that 
word ! How he welcomes the news ! 
'^ Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on 
me ! " he shouts. 

He is rebuked and told to hold his 
peace. He only shouts the more. 
Jesus already knows what the poor 
man wants ; still He asks, " What wilt 
thou that I do to thee ? " '' Lord, that 
I may see." 

Let this prayer be constantly on our 
lips during Lent. Jesus of I^azareth is 



I 



PREPARATION FOR LEKT. 71 

still with US in the Adorable Sacrament 
of the altar. 

Lord, that I may see the state in 
which I stand before God. Lord, that 
I may see the utter folly of the life 
that I have been leading. Lord, that I 
may see the nothingness of earthly 
things, the riches of divine mercy, and 
the immensity of eternal glory. 

For want of this light we think so 
mucli of our bodies and so little of our 
souls. 

IX. 

Shrovetide is the immediate prepara- 
tion for Lent, yet it is generally a time 
of dissipation. 

Lent, begins on the morrow, so we 
prepare for it by much feasting and 
dancing. We give entertainments and 
go to theatres and balls, and the follow- 
ing day we cover our heads with ashes. 

In some countries it is the time of 
the carnival ; and the carnival means 



72 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

that all tliat is most holy, and all that 
we love and cherish most, is j)arodied 
and turned into ridicule. God is out- 
raged and His holy name blasphemed. 

A well-known writer says of St. 
Charles Borromeo that he was "an il- 
lustrious instrument of the divine mercy 
in stemming the decay of piety and 
repairing the breaches made by many 
lukewarm Christians in the discipline 
of the Church." 

St. Charles says of the diversions of 
Shrovetide: ''Are these the works of 
the children of the Church ? Such 
from this time are unwortliy to bear 
that name ; they are indeed children, 
but unnatural and ungrateful towards 
the most tender mother. God calls 
upon us to mourn, but, despising His 
voice, we run to banqueting." 

X. 

Anciently at Shrovetide the faithful 
all went to confession and sanctified 



PKEPARATIOIS^ FOE LEKT. 73 

these days by preparatory practices of 
penance. Prom this universal custom 
it was called Shrovetide — that is, the 
time of confession. 

Preparation for Lent by confession 
is most wholesome for all ; but it is 
absolutely necessary and indispensable 
for those who need it. 

Unfortunately many Christians enter 
upon Lent in a state of sin ; and they 
know perfectly w^ell that a person in a 
state of sin is in a state of spiritual 
death, and therefore can do no work 
meritorious of eternal life. 

They may perform the works of 
Lent. How much labor in vain ! Is it 
likely that their fasting, almsdeeds, and 
prayers can be acceptable to God ? 
Read again the Epistle for Quinqua- 
gesima. 

If Lent, then, is to be to them a day 
of salvation, they must carefully ex- 
amine themselves during these days of 
Shrovetide, and if they are conscious 



74 LENTEJS" THOUGHTS. 

of grievons sin they ought, before en- 
tering Lent, to go to confession. 

No good works can be satisfactory or 
meritorious of eternal life unless per- 
formed in a state of grace. 

The Church, then, in her lessons, 
Epistles, and Gospel Sj and by the color 
of the vestments she uses from Sep- 
tuagesima to Shrove Tuesday, not only 
warns us of the approach of Lent, 
but teaches us how in these days to 
prepare for Lent. 

XI. 

Other thoughts will strike us in our 
preparation for Lent — tlioughts that we 
must dwell upon frequently and more 
at length during the time of Lent. 

Sin is an oflfence against God — sim- 
ple words, but unfathomable. 

The sin of the fallen angels was a sin 
of thought, but it occasioned the crea- 
tion of hell. 



PREPARATION FOR LENT. 75 

The sin of our first parents was a sin 
of disobedience. It closed for them 
and for ns the gates of heaven and 
opened those of hell. 

Sin, in the form of a deluge, destroy- 
ed the world. Only eight human be- 
ings were saved. 

Sin, in the form of fire, burnt up two 
fair cities. Where the cities stood is 
now a lake of foul water, a lasting and 
striking memorial of God's hatred of 
sin. 

Sin made God rejjent that He had 
created the world. 

Hunger and cold, pain and misery, 
famine and pestilence, disease and 
death, all run in a straight line from 
their source — sin. 

On the first Good Friday there hung 
suspended from a gibbet on Calvary's 
heights a lifeless body. The heart in 
that body is the sacred human heart 
of tlie Son of God. It is broken, and 
sin broke it. 



76 LENTBK" THOUGHTS. 

All tills, and a hell ; and yet sin con- 
tinues. 

Sin is a terrible mystery. We can- 
not fathom it, for we must first fathom 
God ; and this is beyond the power of 
the creature. 

We know it caused the death of a 
God. And we know that there must 
be something very awful in sin, other- 
wise God, who is a God of infinite love 
and mercy, could never have brought 
Himself to create hell as a place of 
punishment for sin. 

Let us count up our own personal 
sins. We require no other spur to 
urge us to observe Lent. 

XII. 

Death. ''It is appointed unto man 
once to die." 

It is quite certain that I must one 
day die. There is nothing more cer- 
tain. No one escapes death. Emptj^ 



PREPARxiTIOK FOR LEKT. 77 

rooms and vacant places by tlie fireside 
constantly remind one of this truth. 
Each day I see people borne away to 
their last resting-place. My turn will 
surely come. 

When, where, or how shall I die? 
I know not. Death comes like a thief 
in the night, I may die in my bed. 
Death may overtake me in the street, 
at my meals, in a place of amusement, 
in a moment of sin. 

O my God ! anywhere and at any 
time, so that I die not in sin. 

Whether I shall die suddenly or 
after a long illness is equally uncer- 
tain. I have youth and I have health ; 
but youth and health, singly or com- 
bined, are no sure guarantee of a long 
life. 

Death has no respect for age, healtli, 
or persons. 

At one moment a soul comes into the 
world ; it has scarcely breathed, it 
seems afraid of the world, and, wet 



78 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

with the saving waters of baptism, it 
rushes back to its Creator. At another 
moment death claims the boy and the 
girl, the yonng man and the yonng 
woman, and the man and woman of 
Scriptural age. 

Tlie man full of disease passes away, 
and the man full of health goes forth 
to his work in the morning, and at 
night is brought home a corpse. 

At one moment the poor, the next 
the rich man. At one moment the 
subject, the next the king. 

Deatli comes when we least expect it. 

A loving wife enters the sick-room 
of her fond husband. He is asleep. 
That sleep will bring rest and strength 
and life. She moves about cautiously 
and without noise. She would not 
wake him for the world. And all the 
time that room is the chamber of 
death, and the fond husband's fore- 
head is cold in deatli, and the sleep 
is the sleep that knows no waking. 



PREPABATIOK FOR LEKT. 79 

On the 3d of December, 1885, there 
was an explosion on a tugboat, and 
ia a moment of time six immortal souls 
passed before the judgment-seat of 
their God and Maker« 

If you read the papers the following 
day you met with words to this effect : 

*' The tugboat Dorle Emory was 
steaming down the East River at about 
6.30 P.M, last night, and when opposite 
Fifty-fifth Street she blew up and in- 
stantly disappeared, Not a vestige of 
the crew was found. 

" The captain of a boat that was fol- 
lowing said that he saw a flash and a 
cloud of steam, then heard a report, 
and all was comparatively still." 

Another said: ^'She disappeared in 
a cloud of steam and pieces of plank- 
ing, and on the top of the whole I dis- 
tinguished, for a second, the body of a 
man. Then there was a splashing and 
the river ran on as usual." 

And another said : " We ran on deck 



^1 



80 LEKTE]!!^ THOUGHTS. 

and could just see the cloud of steam 
clearing away from over the wreck. 
In a minute we passed over the spot 
where the Emory had gone down." 

So we die, suddenly, and when we 
least expect death. And the world is 
not stopped in its course. A man full 
of life passes over uninjured the spot 
where a moment before we met death, 
and the stream of life runs on as usual. 

If I listen to the teachings of the 
saints and to the experience of mis- 
sionary i^riests, I am told an all-impor- 
tant truth — this, viz., that as a man 
lives, so generally does he die. 

My death will be like my life. It is 
inuch to know this. If my life is care- 
less and sinful, my death will be care- 
less and I shall die in sin. 

" Plenty of time to prepare for death 
when death threatens," says Satan. 

Thou art the father of lies, Satan. 
I have seen many a death-bed, and the 
4;ime of death is no time for preparing 



PREPARATIOlSr FOR LEIi^T. 81 

for it. The dying man is sometimes 
•unconscious for days before liis death. 
Supposing the dying man is conscious, 
then lie has as much as he can do to 
bear patiently the pains of death. 

A man who has led an easy, indolent 
life will hardly find himself in a condi- 
tion to pray when racked with pains 
on his death-bed. The poor dying sin- 
ner realizes this truth — viz, that life 
only is the preparation for death. 

The saint, when he comes to die, is 
prepared up to the moment when his 
last sickness seizes upon him. That 
last sickness is the completion of his 
preparation for death. Some saints 
have prayed for a sudden death, so 
much did they fear a lingering illness, 
lest, through impatience, they might 
yield in the end. ''For he only who 
perseveres to the end shall be saved.'' 

If the saint can only with fear and 
trembling face and bear this final at- 
tack of tlie powers of evil, hardly will 



82 lekte:s' thoughts. 

the sinner, in the pains of death, begin 
and finish his preparation for death. 

"There is a death-bed repentance," 
says Satan. 

True, Satan ; but I may die suddenly 
and without warning. In the hour of 
his death the penitent thief received 
pardon. But then the hour of his 
death was the hour in which he first 
received the light of faith. 

Notljing less than the power of God 
can, at the hour of death, change a 
man who has lived in sin into a peni- 
tent. 

I cannot risk my eternal salvation on 
the hoi^e tliat God will work a miracle 
for me at the hour of death. 

I have it in my power now to make 
my death what I should most like it 
to be. My death will be like my life. 
This must be my rule and I must or- 
der my life accordingly. 

I have much, then, to think about 
during Lent, and with the help of God 



I 



PREPAKATION FOR LEXT. 83 

one of my resolutions must be so to 
live in the future as if I knew for cer- 
tain that I was to die suddenly and 
without warning. 

Still another thought about death. 
''It is appointed unto man once to 
die." Once to die! I can only die 
once. If I die a bad death, if I die in 
sin and impenitent, if I die suddenly 
and unprepared, there is no remedy. 
I have no second chance of dying. 

The mistake is irremediable and my 
death will be eternal. ''As the tree 
falls, so shall it lie." As I am found 
at the moment of death, so I shall re- 
main for all eternity. 

XIIT. 

"It is appointed unto man once to 
die, and after this the judgment." 

At the moment of death tlie soul 
passes to the judgment-seat of God to 
give an account of her life. 

The rich man and the poor man ap- 



84 LENTEl!^ THOUGHTS. 

pear alike before God, alone and nak- 
ed, with their works — these and no- 
thing else besides. 

Man must render an account of every 
idle word. 

If the number of words we uttered in 
a single year were collected together, 
they would fill many a volume. 

Who shall count the number of our 
thoughts ? Our minds are never at 
rest. 

Our hearts are continually throbbing, 
yet they have not throbbed to the num- 
ber of desires that have passed through 
them. 

Our deeds, our sins of omission — 
all our words, thoughts, desires, deeds, 
and sins of omission are faithfully re- 
corded above. 

The Judge who fries us is Jesus 
Christ. He is Omniscient ; He knows 
every secret of the heart. He is infi- 
nitely just, and no slightest fault will 
go unpunished. He is supreme ; there 



PREPARATION FOR LE^S^T. 85 

is no appeal and the sentence is irrevo- 
cable. He is all-powerful ; no man can 
escape His punishments. 

And when we face Him at that aw- 
ful moment we shall see the wounds 
in His hands and feet which our sins 
have made, 

O great and just Judge ! now is the 
time of mercy. As a sign of Thy 
mercy Thou givest me another Lent. 
Give me light, that during this Lent, 
which may be my last, I may search 
into the very dex)ths of my soul to see 
how I stand before Thee, to see what 
is the account that I shall have to ren- 
der to Thee at the hour of my death. 

XIV. 

Hell. A lost soul sees the face of its 
God at the time of judgment, and it 
knows what it has lost, and lost for 
e^er. 

Most men love God so little in this 
world that the sense of the ''loss of 



86 LE^s^TEN THOUGHTS. 

God for ever " lias but little influence 
in urging tliem to lead a Christian and 
a penitent life. 

What must weigh with them, wheth- 
er they like it or not, is the pain of 
hell and the eternity of that pain. 
The word "eternity," '* for ever," has 
changed many a hardened sinner 
into a saint. 

We tremble at the punishment which 
the state inflicts upon those who break 
its laws. We shudder at the torments 
and sufferings of the martyrs. But 
eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, nor 
hath it entered into the heart of man 
to conceive what punishment God hath 
prepared for those who break His laws. 

Eternity ! for ever ! without ceasing ! 
Why do men object to the word eter- 
nal, everlasting, when applied to the 
punishments of God ? 

They make human punishments eter- 
nal as far as they can. They take a 
man' s life or send him to prison for life. 



PREPAEATION FOR LE]S*T. 87 

God surely has some riglits. Wliat 
is eternity to God ? To Him a tlioii- 
sand years are but a day, and a day a 
thousand years. 

When do many men cease to sin 'i 
Only when they die. Were their life 
prolonged a thousand years, it would 
be a thousand yeai's of sin. We can 
hardly be wrong in believing that had 
the lost souls lived for ever they w^ould 
have continued for ever to sin. 

No objection is ever raised to the 
word when applied to the joys and 
happiness of lieaven. 

Eternity of pain, then, and of incon- 
ceivable pain, is God's punishment for 
sin. 

The human frame is capable of in- 
tense suffering. We bear suffering, 
however great, because we know it will 
have an end. A toothache, without 
end, would destroy us. Pain, then, is 
tolerable because it is not eternal. 

Why talk of pain? We groAv tired 



88 LEXTEX THOUGHTS. 

and weary of pleasure, and too much 
pleasure begets pain. A man grows 
weary of lying on a feather-bed for a 
week. He cannot stand an endless 
ball, or sit out a play at a theatre 
beyond a certain number of hours. 
AYorldly pleasure, then, is tolerable be- 
cause it is not eternal. 

The man whom we condemn to pri- 
son for life has ever a hope of escape. 
A spark of hope is in his bosom ; no 
matter how slight, it is there. He 
dreams of freedom and lives. 

In hell the pains are eternal. The 
lost soul is in the power of an Omnipo- 
tent God. There is no escape. 

A man will do much and suffer much 
to keep himself out of prison. But for 
a few years' gratification, for the plea- 
sure of a moment, he will fling himself 
headlong into hell. 

How, in the name of common sense, 
can man be so rash and foolish, when 
he knows so well that the greatest 



PREPARATION FOR LEi^TT. 89 

pleasures of this life are only tolerable 
because they are not eternal ? 

XV. 

Heaven. We shall see God face to 
face. To live for ever face to face with 
God is the greatest happiness of hea- 
ven. Without God heaven would not 
be paradise. 

The reward is eternal. AVhat a feel- 
ing of security ! 

No more pain, no more sorrow, no 
more sin, but everlasting life ! 

We shall know then, as perfectly as 
it is possible for the creature to know, 
the hideousness of sin and how offen- 
sive it is to God. And as we gaze 
upon the infinite beauty of God we 
shall realize the happiness of being be- 
yond the reach of the tempter. We 
shall have liberty, and know that we 
can never again abuse it. 

We shall realize then the terrible 
pains of hell. We shall have passed 



90 lekte:n^ thoughts. 

through the cleansing fire of purga- 
tory. And in heaven we shall know 
what we have escaped in escaping hell. 

Apart from the joys of heaven, un- 
seen, nnheard of. and bevond the con- 
ception of man, we shall find eternity 
not too long in wliicli to thank God 
for our deliverance from the eternal fire 
of hell. 

Life is worth living when we think 
of this reward. 

XVI. 

Purgatory is a place of temporal pun- 
ishment. 

Let us take a brief and common- 
sense view of this place created bj^ the 
mercy of God. 

Men object to the eternity of the 
pains of hell, and they also object to 
the temporal pains of purgatory. 

There are many mansions in heaven. 
So there are degrees of punishment in 
hell. 



PREPAKATIOX FOR LE>TT. 91 

A mnn commits a mortal sin and 
dies without repentance ; lie loses God 
for ever. Another commits many mor- 
tal sins and dies unrepentant ; he, too, 
loses God for ever, but his hell is very 
much more terrible tban that of the 
man of one mortal sin. 

The law has its degrees of punish- 
ment also. In the death-sentence and 
the sentence for life we make punish- 
ment eternal as far as we can. 

A man commits a murder and he is 
hanged. Another commits two mur- 
ders and he is hanged. He is not 
hanged twice, because he can only die 
once. Death limits the power of the 
law. 

For minor offences we have tempo- 
rary punishments, proportioned to the 
offences. 

The world will pass away, but not 
one jot nor one tittle of God's w^oid. 
Now, this is the word of God : No- 
thing defiled can enter heaven ; and 



92 LEXTEN THOUGHTS. 

unless we do penance for sin we shall 
perlslj. 

A man dies. His life was one of 
negative goodness. There was an ab- 
sence of mortal sin. He never did any 
remarkable good. He obeyed the 
Church in all essentials, and that was 
all. 

Another man dies. He was an easy- 
going Christian. Once, perhaps, he 
committed a deadly sin, but he was 
truly sorry for it, and, full of sorrow, 
confessed it. His life was full of ve- 
nial sin. He never did any voluntary 
penance. He took things easily. 

Let these two cases suffice. I ask 
the man who does not believe in 
purgatory where be is going to place 
souls of this kind? ''Nothing de- 
tiled shall enter heaven," says God. 
The unbeliever in purgatory will hard- 
ly say that these souls are unde- 
filed. And, again, he would scarcely 
think it just to condemn these souls 



PREPAKATIOJN' FOR LE:NT. 93 

to eternal flames. What, then, be- 
comes of them ? 

"Some souls shall be saved yet so 
as by fire," says Holy Writ. 

Strange inconsistency ! The Crea- 
tor's punishment of the creature is 
criticised. When man punishes his 
fellow-man his conduct is beyond 
criticism. 

It has always been a puzzle to me 
why those outside of the Catholic 
Church refuse to believe in this beau- 
tiful doctrine of purgatory. 

They deprive themselves surely of 
one of the greatest and most consoling 
works of charity that a Christian is 
capable of performing. 

The doctrine of purgatory deprives 
death of many of its terrors. We oft- 
en regret, when relatives and friends 
are taken from us, the w^ant of love we 
showed them in life. If we believe in 
purgatory an opj)ortanity is offered to 
us of making up for that former want 



94 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

of love by praying for them and help- 
ing them now by onr good works, 
when they most need our help and 
can no longer help themselves. 

A man is buried to-day and to-mor- 
roAV forgotten. Why ? For want of 
this faith. With a practical faith in 
purgatory it is impossible to forget the 
dead. 

St. Augustine and other learned Fa- 
thers of the Church, who flourished a 
thousand years before the so-called 
Reformation, are of opinion that the 
souls in purgatory suffer a real fire 
like that of hell ; and if you added 
despair and eternity, purgatory would 
become hell. 

St. Thomas teaches that the same fire 
torments the damned in hell and the 
just in purgatory. 

A man would be un\\dse and rash to 
despise the opinions of these learned 
saints. 

Our lives are full of venial sins. 



PREPAKATIOX FOR LENT. 95 

People speak of tliem as little sins. 
They forget purgatory. A venial sin is 
an offence against God. It does not 
kill the soul, bnt it defiles it. If all 
the angels in heaven offered to take 
human form and die by crucifixion, 
their death could not efface the stain 
which a venial sin casts upon the soul. 

Nothing save Christ's own precious 
blood can w^ash this dark stain away. 
N^othing but His infinite merits can re- 
pair the injury it has done the soul. 

Voluntary penance, then, in this life, 
or we must be saved yet so as by fire. 

God is pleased to accept our works 
of fasting, almsdeeds, and prayer in 
place of the fire of purgatory. How 
many venial sins have w^e not commit- 
ted ? They are more numerous than 
the hairs of our head. How much 
voluntary penance have vre done ? 

How much of this temporal punish- 
ment may we not wipe off by a cou- 
rageous observance of Lent? 



96 LEi^TEJS^ THOUGHTS. 

XYII. 

The foregoing tlioiiglits should fill 
us with good resolutions for Lent. 

The end which some Christians set 
tliemselves in life is simply to keep 
themselves free from mortal sin. If 
they just get into heaven they are 
satisfied. 

Such people surely possess ungene- 
rous hearts. 

Think of the lives of the saints, so 
devoid of sin, yet so full of penance 
and good works. Many of them were 
of noble families and in the possession 
of great wealth ; yet for their way to 
heaven they chose the way of the 
cj'oss. This was the lot of their Divine 
Master. They w^ould be like Him, so 
they preferred poverty, humility, self- 
denial, the way of the cross, to wealth 
and position and ease in the world. 

''There are many mansions in my 
Father's house," says our Lord. Let 



PREPARATION FOR LEKT. 97 

US try and gain as high a place in 
heaven as we can. Think of Christ's 
generosity towards us. He did not 
die on the cross till His body was 
drained oi; the last drop ol* His sacred 
blood. 

Even if we have committed no great 
sins let us think of the sins of every 
large city, of the crimes by which mul- 
titudes profane the lioly season of 
Lent, of the sins of God's own children 
which draw down blasphemies upon 
His holy Church and prevent many 
from entering it. Can w^e think of all 
these sins by wliich Grod is daily out- 
raged, and not feel at least a spark of 
St. Paul's zeal for the honor and glory 
of God? 

Let us, then, make generous resolu- 
tions for Lent. Let us resolve to at- 
tend all the Lenten services, to hear 
Mass each day, to liear the word of 
God as often as it is preached to us, to 
pray hard for ourselves and for the 



98 LEKTEK THOUGHTS. 

negligent ones of the congregation^ to 
make all the reparation we can for our 
own sins and the sins of the world. 



XVIII. 

To practise abstemiousness from 
Septuagesima to Ash-Wednesday we 
shall find a good preparation for the 
fast of Lent. 

^'The rule of Nature in all its opera- 
tions," says Alban Butler, '4s simpli- 
city and uniformity, and the best mis- 
tress of health is temperance and regu- 
larity in the quality, times, and man- 
ner of taking nourishment and rest." 

''As wrestlers," says St. Basil, "ex- 
ercise themselves before the combat, so 
must Christians practise abstemious- 
ness in order to prepare and fit them- 
selves for fasting." 

Many people produce but little fruit 
in Lent, because they neglect to pre- 
pare for it. When Easter comes they 



PREPARATION FOR LEKT. 99 

are not mncli better than they were on 
Ash-Wednesda3^ 

It! we consult our reason alone we 
can hardly look upon Lent as a time 
of grace and of penance, and neglect 
to make the neceissary preparation of 
mind and body. 

If the thoughts which the lessons 
and gospels of Septuagesima, Sexagesi- 
nia, and Shrovetide put into our minds 
do not soften a man's heart and urge 
him to do great things in Lent, such a 
one would have stood on Calvary and 
gazed upon his Redeemer, and have 
listened to the agonizing cries of his 
dying Saviour, and his heart w^ould 
have remained unsoftened, though the 
Ijard rocks were split in two. 

Upon the care with which this pre- 
paration is made depends mainly the 
fruit of the whole of Lent. 



IV. 

Fasting. 



faatina. 



'^ Every good tree bringetti forth 
good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth 
forth evil fruit. Every tree that bring- 
eth not forth good fruit shall be cut 
down and cast into the fire" (St. 
Matt, vii.) 

These words are significant : you are 
the tree, your good works the good 
fruit, your evil works the evil fruit. 

If we bear evil fruit, it goes without 
saying that we shall be cast into the 
the fire. 

If we do not bring forth good fruit, 
we fail to answer the end for which v^e 
were made, and are therefore cast into 
the fire. 



104 LLXTEX THOUGHTS. 

If you plant a fruit-tree in j^our gar- 
den you expect it to bear fruit. It 
may put fortli leaves, it may be cov- 
ered with blossoms and is pleasing to 
the eye, yet it does not produce fruit. 
It does not answer your purpose. You 
cut it down ; it is taking up valuable 
space in your garden : it is tit only for 
firewood. 

In another place our Lord speaks of 
tlie barren tree, and He says: ^'Cut 
it down : wijv cumbereth it the 
ground l '' 

There are Christians who resemble 
this barren tree. They bring forth 
leaves, shadows, appearances, but no 
fruit. They produce even blossoms, 
and these are their good intentions 
and resolutions. Still no fruit. These 
l^lossonis are for ever being scattered to 
the gi'ound by the ^vinds of human re- 
spect, want of courage, attachment to 
tlie world, and love of an easy-going 
life. 



FASTI]S"G. 105 

The intentions are never fulfilled, tlie 
resolutions never kept. Some one has 
said that hell is paved with such re- 
solutions. 

And our Lord says : " Not every one 
that says to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven ; but he 
that doth the will of my Father wdio is 
in heaven, he shall enter into the king- 
dom of heaven." 

It is not enough to be a Christian. 
We must produce the fruit of a Chris- 
tian. And the fruit of a Christian is 
'• to do good and avoid evil.'- This our 
Creator exacts from us, and less will 
not satisfy Him. 

This is just and reasonable. Man 
requires it of his servant. We expect 
a servant not only to do the work of a 
servant, but also to refrain from doing 
any evil or damage to us or our prop- 
erty. On the other hand, we would not 
deem a servant worthy of his hire 
v/ho, whilst doing us no evil, neglected 



106 LENTEIS" THOUGHTS. 

his work. Grod exacts from us, then, 
only what we exact from our servants. 
''Every tree that bringeth not forth 
good fruit shall be cut down and cast 
into the fire." We might well reflect 
on these words every day of our life. 
They have a special significance in 
Lent. 

II. 

There can be no good, true fruit 
without good works. The good works 
required of every Christian are all com- 
prised under fasting, almsdeeds, and 
prayer. And there is no one who can- 
not perform these works. 

We possess three powers with which 
we commonl}^ offend God — our wealth, 
our body, and our soul. As a repa- 
ration we must consecrate our Avealth 
by liberal alms, our body by rigorous 
fasts, and our soul by continual pray- 
ers. 

Again, sin offends either ourselves. 



FASTING. 107 

our neighbor, or our God. By fasting 
we chastise ourselves, by alms we com- 
fort our neighbor, and by prayer we 
honor Grod. 

The fast of Lent is twofold. There 
is a sj)iritual fast and a corporal fast. 

The spiritual fast is the fast from 
sin, and it is the first condition for the 
sanctification of the corporal fast. 

This fast is binding on every Chris- 
tian, at all times and at every period of 
his age ; but special care and watchful- 
ness are needed to keep this fast in the 
season of Lent : first, because sins com- 
mitted in Lent are especially displeas- 
ing to God; and, secondly, because if 
the spiritual fast is broken, then the 
corporal fast, like the fast of the Phari- 
sees, has no supernatural merit. 

'^In this obligation there is no ex- 
cuse, where the whole depends on our 
will alone," says St. Austin. 

St, Leo says: '^Wliat does it avail 
the soul to act as if she commands the 



1 08 LEKTEX THOUGHTS. 

body as mistress and queen, if all this 
while she is a slave in the heart ? 
Whilst the body fasts from food the 
soul must fast from vices, and govern 
her affection and ap]3etites by the sway 
of her authority and dominion.- ' 

" Thou fastest and art angry," says 
St Jerome: ''what kind of fast can 
that be?" 

''By fasting," says St. Chrysostom, 
" I mean abstinence from all sin, which 
is the end of abstinence from food. 
Therefore we fast from meat and 
drink, that we may curb the lusts of 
the flesh, and make the horse more 
easily to obey his rider. He who 
fasts ought, above all things, to re- 
frain from anger, to learn meekness 
and gentleness, to have a contrite 
lieart, to repel all irregular desires, to 
have before him continually the ej^e of 
liis neighbor. A faster ought to be 
humble, mild, lowly, a contemner of 
the glory of this life." 



FASTIiq^G. 109 

III. 

The corporal fast of Lent is a forbear- 
ance of necessary food, and it binds all 
Christians of the age of twenty- one and 
upwards. 

By a sin of pride and intemperance 
our first parents fell. As a remedy 
for this disorder our merciful God op- 
posed the virtue of fasting. The Son 
of God undertook the atonement — mor- 
tification unto death. If we are to re- 
ceive the fruits of His satisfaction we 
must, by mortification, become living 
copies of Him. 

This precept God gave to Adam — 
to forbear eating the forbidden fruit. 
Hence this law of fasting is the first 
and most ancient of all the positive 
laws given by the Creator to the crea- 
ture. 

IV. 

The flesh is usually the cause of all 
our spiritual diseases. The flesh, then, 



110 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

must be cliastised, and tlie pain of fast- 
ing satisfies for the pleasure we have 
taken in sin. 

'^Fast," says St. Basil, ''because 
thou hast sinned, and fast to prevent 
the danger of falling into sin." 

If we are sorry for sin we have re- 
pentance ; and repentance implies a 
resolution to suffer, to do penance 
proportioned in some degree to our 
sins. 

St. Basil says: ''Penance without 
fasting is idle and fruitless. By fast- 
ing we make satisfaction to God." 

" He who shall have treated his slave 
daintily shall afterwards find him re- 
bellious" (Prov. xxix. 21). 

"If thou givest thy soul her desires, 
she will make thee a joy to thy ene- 
mies" (Ecclus. xviii. 31). 

"For since the flesh," says St. Gre- 
gory, "has, by its irregular delights, 
cast us into crime, it is fit it should 
punish itself for it, and by voluntary 



FASTING. Ill 

cliasfcisement get rid of the evil; and 
since we have made no scruple to 
displease God for the pleasing of our 
senses, reason requires that we should 
afflict and mortify them for the satis- 
fying of Grod." 

For our corporal health we will sub- 
mit to anything. The doctor lays down 
strict rules ; we submit. We swallow 
the bitterest medicines. We suffer the 
fire and the sharpest knife of the sur- 
geon. What is there that a man will 
not undergo to preserve life? 

Shall we do nothing for the eter- 
nal life of the soul? God does not 
ask much. We are not asked to suf- 
fer fire. The knife will not enter 
our flesh. For our spiritual diseases, 
and in order that we may have eter- 
nal life, our Divine Physician recom- 
mends us, every now and then, and 
for a short time, to abstain from cer- 
tain kinds of food, and to give up a 
little necessary food. 



112 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

A little fasting is good also for the 
body. Speaking of corporal health, 
Alban Butler says: ''As temperance 
and abstemiousness are its best guar- 
dians, so is fasting often its safest and 
most easy remedy. The spring is the 
most proper season of the year for re- 
pairing all disorders of the body, the 
humors being then more afloat and the 
whole vegetable creation suffering some 
degree of an universal ferment. Fresh 
herbs also at this season furnish the 
most salutary juices. That the Church 
has our corporal health in view, as a 
secondary motive, in the institution 
of Lent, appears from the collect in 
which she teaches us to pray ' that 
this solemn fast, which is wholesome- 
ly instituted to cure our souls and 
bodies, may be devoutly observed by 
us.' " 

If the Church did not appoint a cer- 
tain time and certain days for fasting, 
the majority of Christians would to- 



FASTIKG. 113 

tally neglect this important duty. As 
a proof of this I will ask you, Have 
you ever in your lifetime appointed a 
fasting-day for yourself? 

If a man has ever sinned grievously, 
let him think of the enormous debt of 
temporal punishment due for that sin ; 
and if he has not the courage to fast 
now and then of his own accord, let 
him at least keep the fasting-days ap- 
pointed by the Church. 

V. 

The obligation of fasting in Lent is 
something very serious. It is not a 
question of inclination. It is not a 
matter of choice. When the Church 
commands us to fast in Lent we are 
just as much bound to obey her as 
when she bids us hear Mass on Sun- 
days. 

St. Basil declares ''that he who is 
able to keep this fast, yet breaks it. 



114 LEKTEIS^ THOUaHTS, 

will be arraigned for this transgres- 
sion before Him wlio is the legislator 
of the fasts'' — meaning God Himself. 

St. Csesarius of Aries says: '^To 
fast on other days is a remedy for 
sin or entitles to a reward. Not to 
fast in Lent is a sin. He who fasts 
at another time shall obtain pardon ; 
he who is able and does not fast on 
these days shall suffer punishment." 

St. Ambrose says : ''It is not a light 
offence to break the fast prescribed." 

St. Bernard says: ''Now kings and 
princes, clergy and laity, the nobility 
and the common i)eople, the rich and 
the poor, will all fast as one man. Is 
it not most base that a fast which the 
whole Church bears with us should 
seem burdensome ? " 

If we are able and do not fast, then 
we exclude ourselves from the num. 
ber of God's children, and are rebels 
against our holy Church. 



FASTING, 115 



VI. 



Let us listen to what the saints tell 
us of the value of fasting : 

St. Bernard saj^s : ''Whilst we, by 
fasang, abstain from lawful things, 
we obtain pardon for those that are 
unlawful : and thus with a short fast, 
which lasts but for a moment, we re- 
deem the eternal fasts which are suf- 
fered in hell ; for one only mortal sin 
deserves hell. In that woful place 
there is no food tasted. The rich glut- 
ton begs but only one drop of water, 
and in so many ages it is not given 
him. In that place is no comfort 
to be found, and miseries have no 
limits. Happy, then, is the fast which 
secures us from the fasts and tor- 
ments that never shall have an 
end." 

St. Peter of Ravenna calls fasting 
''the palace of God, the camp of Jesus 
Christ, the wall of the Holy Grhost, the 



116 LEKTEK THOUGHTS, 

ensign of faith, the mark of charity, 
the standard of holiness." 

St. Angastine assures us that ''fast- 
ing purifies souls, raises the under- 
standing, subdues the flesh to the 
spirit, makes a contrite and liumble 
heart, drives away the darkness of con- 
cupiscence, cools the heat of impuri- 
ty, and kindles the light of charity ; 
that fasting moderates our desires, 
mortifies our passions, instructs our 
life, and puts bounds to our covet- 
ousness. Fasting is allied to all vir- 
tues ; poverty acknowledges it for her 
brother, penance for her son, charity 
for her mother, prayer for her most 
faithful comT)anion ; it is the destroyer 
of self-love, the preserver of our health, 
and one of the most sure and most 
powerful means to reconcile us to God 
and to obtain His graces." 

By fasting the Mnivites warded off 
the auger of God (Jonas iii. 10). 

By fastiug the children of Israel 



PASTING. 117 

found assistance in their necessities 
(1 Kings vii. 6). 

By fasting the three children in the 
fieiy furnace were defended from the 
fary of the king of Babylon (Dan. i. 
8-12). 

By fasting Elias was taken up in 
the fiery chariot (4 Kings ii.), and 
Moses received the law (Exod. xxiv, 
28). 

Even the Pharisees recognized the 
value of fasting. To the Avorks of 
almsdeeds and prayer they were oblig- 
ed to add the work of fasting. With- 
out it they felt that they could not 
even wear the appearance of sanctity. 
They disfigured their faces, that they 
might appear to the people to fast. 
''I fast twice in the week," said one 
of these boasters. 

"Prayer is good with fasting and 
alms, more than to lay up treasures 
of gold" (Tob. xii. 8). 



118 LE2ITTEK THOUGHTS. 



VII. 



'^Be converted to me with all your 
heart, in fasting, and in weeping, and 
in mourning" (Joel ii. 12). 

Qur Divine Lord was born in poverty 
and died in torments. His life was a 
life of humiliation, self denial, suffer- 
ing, and ignominy. 

There was no need surely for Him 
to add fasting to His sufferings ; yet 
He prepared Himself by fasting to 
preach the Gospel. 

He is the leader and captain of our 
spiritual warfare, and though invul- 
nerable, yet before He encountered the 
tempter He prepared Himself by a 
rigorous fast of forty days. 

This was for our example, to show 
us how to meet the assaults of the 
enemy. And Holy Writ tells us that 
a heavenly blessing is attached to fast- 
ing ; " for then the devil left Him, and 
angels came and ministered to Him." 



\ i 



PASTING. 119 

It is indeed strange that while our 
Lord lived a life of suffering, we, His 
disciples, shrink from the least morti- 
fication. He, the Sinless One, carried 
His heavy cross on shoulders lacerated 
by the cruel scourge ; we, full of sin, 
refuse even to touch the cross. 

Unless we imitate His self-denial we 
can hardly hope to be admitted into 
His kingdom. ''He that taketh not 
up his cross, and foil owe th me, is not 
worthy of me" (St. Matt. x. 38). 

VIII. 

Fasting was one of the most pow- 
erful weapons used by the saints in 
vanquishing themselves, the world, 
and the devil. 

St. Gregory Nazianzen says of St. 
John the Baptist ''that he felt no 
more rebellion of the flesh than if he 
had lived without a body." 

St. Fructuosus, a holy bishop of 



120 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

Tarragon, in Spain, was martyred dur- 
ing the persecution of Valerian in 259. 
Whilst he was being led to martyr- 
dom, on a Friday, at ten o'clock in 
the morning, a drink of water was of- 
fered to him, but he refused it be- 
cause it was not the hour to break 
the fast of the day. Though fatigued 
with his imprisonment and in need of 
strength to face death, he exclaimed: 
^'It is a fast-day ; I refuse to drink ; 
it is not yet the ninth hour; death 
itself shall not oblige me to abridge 
my fast." 

We pamper our flesh, so that we 
shudder when we read of the rigor- 
ous and continual fasts of the saints, 
and of the hard and scanty fare with 
w^hich they broke their fasts. 

The bodies of the saints were framed 
like ours, they served the same God 
whom we serve, they had no other as- 
sistance in their labors than we have. 

In consideration of human weakness 



FASTING. 121 

the Clmrcli in these days has granted 
large exemptions, and we may well 
be humbled and confounded when we 
compare our cold and easy penances 
with the fervor and rigor of the 
saints. 

If the snints so fast, what shall the 
sinner do? 

IX. 

The Jews and pagans considered a 
drink of water out of meal- time on a 
fasting-day a breach of the fast. To 
this day the Mussulmans have no 
other idea of fasting. 

^'The Mohammedans," says Alban 
Butler, ''though immersed in sensu- 
ality and vice, keep up this essential 
law in their fasts, which consists in 
neither eating, nor drinking, nor 
smoking the whole day, from morning 
to the rising of the stars in the even- 
ing. When their monthly fast of Ra- 
madan falls in summer this thirst is 



123 LJEXTEX THOrOHTS. 

very troublesome to travellei^ and la- 
borers. But thev must endure it, no 
one being excused from fasting, nei- 
ther women, soldiers, travellers, labor- 
ers, nor artificers, neither the sick nor 
the poor. The sultan fasts as well as 
the orhei*s.'' 

The Mohammedan fast is a super- 
stition. 

The fast of the Pharisees was vanity 
and hypocrisy. 

The fast of the covetous man, who 
begrudges himself food, is avarice. 

The fast of the man who prepares 
himself by fasting for a banquet is no 
better than gluttony. 

The Cliristian fast is something noble 
and ennobliug. It is sanctified, be- 
cause it springs from motives of reli- 
gion, obedience, and penance. 

Shall we do less for the honor oi 
our Church and in reparation for sin 
than the Pharisee did for vanity, than 
the Mohammedan does from snpersti- 



FASTING. 123 

tion, the covetous man for base avarice, 
or the ex->icure for gluttony i 



X. 



Dispensation from fasting is some- 
times necessary, and is gi*anted for the 
following reasons : 

1. Incapacity, as in the case of jjev- 
sons who are sick or very poor. 

2. Jvecessity, as hard labor. 

3. Some greater good, as assiduons 
attendance on the sick, teaching, and 
mnch preaching. 

Every slight ailment, such as uneasi- 
ness, or little pain, or slight head- 
aches, is not a just reason for a dis- 
pensation. 

Fasting is disagreeable, but every 
slight disorder is not a just cause for 
a dispensation. Sometimes fasting is 
the best cure for these disorders. Our 
bodies are enfeebled by excess and not 
by abstinence. 



124 LEKTEl!?^ THOUGHTS. 

Fasting is not to our liking, but 
then mortification is the end of fasting. 

As for the poor, in Lent and out of 
Lent, their poverty will not allow them 
to procure one good meal a day. Their 
life is a perpetual Lent. Let them try 
and bear patiently and resignedly the 
hardships of poverty. Resignation to 
the will of God is their fast. 

Young persons and persons of weak 
constitutions should not fast too long 
at a time. 

Persons living in cold climates re- 
quire more food than those living in 
warm climates. 

Hard labor excuses from fasting. 
Persons who work hard, especially 
those who work in the open air, re- 
quire and easily digest more food than 
those occuj)ied in study or sedentary 
work. 

Much travelling and long journeys 
on foot will come under hard labor. A 
long journey in a carriage, for recrea- 



FASTINa, 125 

tion, would hardly be an excuse from 
fasting. The journey must be in some 
degree necessary. 

In seeking a dispensation let us not 
give a false motive nor exaggerate a 
real one. ''Believe me, my son," said 
an ancient hermit, ''we are as strong 
in body as they who run in the Olym- 
pic games. It is the soul that is fee- 
ble and wants courage." 

Whenever we doubt the validity of 
our reasons fdr a dispensation, let us 
leave the responsibility in the hands of 
our confessor or of some conscientious 
physician. 

Sometimes only a partial dispensa- 
tion is required. A man may not be 
able to fast every day, still he may be 
able to fast one or two days every 
week. 

XI. 

St. Chrysostom says : "If, by reason 
of the weakness of thy body, thou 



126 LEi^TEN THOUGHTS. 

canst not continue all the day fasting, 
no wise man will reprove thee for it. 
For we serve a gentle and merciful 
Lord, who expects nothing of ns be- 
yond oiir strength. Only the lazy and 
dissolute, not those who cannot fast, 
are blamable. Other wider doors of 
confidence towards God may be open- 
ed than by mere abstinence from food. 
He, therefore, who takes some food, 
being unable to fast, let him give larger 
alms ; let him send up more fervent 
prayers ; let him be more forward, and 
show greater alacrity in hearing the 
word of God. In these things his 
bodily infirmity can be no hindrance to 
him. Let him be reconciled to his ene- 
mies, drive all remembrance of injuries 
out of his heart and the. like, and he 
hath kept the true fast wliich the Lord 
requires. For He commands us to 
abstain from food for the sake of these 
things, and that we should check the 
wantonness of the flesh, and make it 



J 



FASTING. 127 

obedient and tractable to fulfil His 
commandments. Wherefore, I beseech 
you who can fast, that you increase 
and make more fervent this your pious 
forwardness. For the more the out- 
ward man decays, the more your in- 
ward man is renewed and strength- 
ened. Fasting brings under the body 
and bridles its disorderly motion ; it 
also makes the soul more clear and 
bright ; it likewise gives it wings, and 
makes it light and ready to soar aloft. 
As to those who are not able to fast, 
not he who eats and drinks moderate- 
ly, but he who is slothful, dissolute, 
and sensual, is unworthy this auditory, 
according to the oracle of the apostle : 
'He that eateth, eateth to the Lord; 
and he that eateth not, to the Lord he 
eateth not, and giveth G-od thanks.' 
In like manner, let him that fasteth 
give thanks to God, who gives him 
strength able to support the labors of 
fasting. And he that fasteth not, let 



ill 



128 LEXTE^S" THOUGHTS. 

him give thanks that this hinders him 
not from pursuing the means of his 
salvation, if he will give attention to 
it^" 

XII, 

Fasting does not merely mean absti- 
nence from a certain quantity or kind 
of food. Under the head of Fasting is 
comprised every act which implies self- 
sacrifice and self-denial. 

The more indulgent the Church, the 
more we ought to consider ourselves 
called to practise self-denial of our own 
accord. 

Fasting must always be exercised 
with prudence and moderation ; and 
we must be careful, whilst punishing 
the flesh for the pleasure qt sin, not to 
diminish or destroy the strength our 
bodies need for the service of God. 
This advice is hardlj^ needed ; it re- 
quires, at least, no urging. 

When we need a dispensation we 



FASTIN^G. 129 

ought to use the indulgence with re- 
gret, and look on our inability to fast 
as a real misfortune. 

A dispensation does not mean a lib- 
erty to do nothing. Persons dispensed 
by reason of youth, hard labor, or for 
any cause whatsoever, have passions to 
curb, sins to satisfy for, and are called 
to join in the general public penance of 
Lent. 

If during Lent we produce no fruits 
worthy of penance, we deprive our- 
selves of the immense spiritual advan- 
tages of this holy season, and neglect 
an essential duty on which our salva- 
tion depends. 

XIII. 

Persons who are dispensed ought out 
of their own devotion, and with a truly 
penitential spirit, to substitute in place 
of fasting some act of self-denial. 

As a rule those who are dispensed 
say daily some prayer in place of fast- 



130 LENTEN^ THOUGHTS. 

ing. This is an easy way out of the 
difficulty. It does not cost us any 
pain or self-denial to say this prayer ; 
and we can hardly be satisfl^ed with 
ourselves, for we feel that we are not 
acting generously. 

Again, prayer is itself one of the 
works of Lent, and Lent is not too long 
for the special prayers it demands of 
us. 

If we desire to be generous, if we 
wish to feel that we are really joining 
in the general fast of Lent, let us, if 
dispensed, choose some act that will 
cost us a little trouble to perform, some 
act of self-denial that will be irksome 
to the flesh. 

I know some young men in the world 
who have the habit of smoking, and 
who indulge moderately in strong 
drink. They are not able to fast. Of 
their own accord every year on Ash- 
Wednesdiiy they lock up their cigars 
and give up strong drink, and touch 



FASTIKG. 131 

neither one nor tlie other till Easter 
Sunday. This is no light sacrifice. 
Fasting, to those whose health will bear 
it, is a much easier sacrifice. 

If we are in earnest we shall find 
many ways of fasting. Let us deprive 
ourselves of things which are not un- 
lawful. ''All things," says the Apos- 
tle, ' ' are lawful to me, but all things 
are not expedient." 

Without injury to health, even a 
person of weak constitution might eat 
less than usual, or make a more frugal 
meal, or deny himself some dainty or 
delicacy. No one present at the table 
would know the motive, but the guar- 
dian angel would record the fact, and 
*'Thy Father, who seeth in secret, will 
reward thee" (St. Matt. vi. 18). 

The smoker who does not fast might 
give up smoking totally or partially 
during Lent. The same may be said 
of those who indulge in wine and 
strong drink. 



133 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

Other acts of self-denial would be to 
avoid all places of amusement, to give 
no parties or dinners and to accept in- 
vitations to none, to give up novel- 
reading and all light literature, and 
to spend the time usually given to 
such reading in reading the life of a 
saint or in spiritual reading of some 
sort. 

Again, a man might resolve to at- 
tend all the special Lenten services, to 
hear Mass especially, every day. If it. 
meant a little inconvenience — rising half 
an hour earlier — so much the better. 
There is an act of self-sacrifice and self- 
denial. 

Such acts as these vvill supply the 
place of the corporal fast of Lent, and 
persons of every kind of constitution 
can perform them. It is another way 
of fasting. 

These acts are acts of self-denial ; 
they cost us a sacrifice and are irksome 
to the fleah, and are therefore more 



FASTING. 133 

efficacious than acts of piety, which 
cost little or no sacrifice. 

Let, then, each of us contribute our 
mite to the universal sacrifice of the 
Church at this holy time. 

Sin is as heinous now as it Avas in the 
early ages. The justice of God is, like 
Himself, immutable. It is not easier 
now than in the first ages of the Church 
to obtain pardon and reconciliation. 

Let not our lukewarmness or want of 
courage make us rob God of the honor 
we pretend to give Him, or depreciate 
the merit of the sacrifice we offer Him. 

^' The angels," says St. Basil, ''draw 
up the list of those who fast ; take 
care that your angel put down your 
name, and desert not the standard of 
your religion." 

xiy. 

Anciently the ecclesiastical law of 
fasting did not except children who 
were ten years of age. 



134 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

''Yet forty days and Mnive shall 
be destroyed" (Jon. iii.) To avert tlie 
anger of God a public fast was enjoin- 
ed, and all the Mnivites fasted as one 
man. The fast was extended to the 
brute beasts, in order that the sight 
of their affliction might, in a more 
striking manner, excite the people to 
mourn for the sins by which they 
had provoked the anger of God against 
the country. 

Those parents are wise who accustom 
their children to the practice of some 
little act of self-denial in Lent. I have 
before my mind now some parents who 
deprive their little ones of sweets and 
delicacies every day in Lent, with the 
exception of Mid-Lent Sunday. 

Some of the little ones were five and 
six years of age. A child's self-denial 
must surely arouse courage in a man ; 
and the sight of these little innocent 
ones joining in the public fast of Lent, 
and practising self-denial for the sins 



FASTING. 135 

of the world, must be pleasing beyond 
expression to the Infant Jesus and 
make Him very merciful in Lent. 

St. Thomas says that the young 
ought to begin to exercise themselves 
in fasting, more or less according to 
their age and strength. 

'^Boys," says St. Basil, "]ike green 
plants, are watered with the dews of 
fasting." 

XV. 

One word in reference to Good Fri- 
day. 

''In what part of the year," says 
St. Augustine, "is it more suitable to 
observe our great fast than in that in 
which we commemorate the sufferings 
of Christ?" 

Good Friday, in some countries, is 
a public holiday, which usually means 
a day of greater occasions and more 
o]3portunities of sin. 
. Many who call themselves Chris- 



136 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

tians keep this day literally as a day 
of rejoicing. In many places it is the 
opening-day of excursions, fairs, va- 
rious pastimes, etc. 

This day, of all others, is a day of 
grief and of sorrow. Any semblance 
of joy on this day is unnatural. Such 
is the Catholic view of Good Friday, 
and we are content to wait till Eiister 
Sunday, when the Church bids us re- 
joice. 

A man does not feast when his friend 
lies dying. Still less would he feast 
were his friend dying to save him 
from death. 

A son does not rejoice on the anni- 
versary of his father's death. If the 
death of the father brought the son a 
large inheritance the joy of the son 
would still seem to us unnatural. 

A bishop, in proving that the pre- 
cept of passing Good Friday and Easter 
eve in a rigorous fast was an apostolic 
practice and precept, says : ''It having 



FASTIKG. 137 

been the custom of the Jews, as is well 
known, that every dutiful child kept 
the anniversary-day of his fathers 
death a solemn fast as long as he 
lived, in token of his affection and 
grief, nothing seems more absurd, upon 
motives both of reason and faith, than 
that the apostles should not fast every 
year on the day on which their dear- 
est Master, the only Saviour of man- 
kind, the Eternal Son of God, was 
pleased, for their sins and those of 
others, to suffer most cruel torments 
and a barbarous death. Who, amongst 
the very last of His followers, would 
not, npon the yearly return of this 
day, say to himself : ' On this very day, 
for my sins, the ouly-begotten Son of 
Grod was loaded with contempt, torn 
with scourges, crowned with thorns, 
and hung on a cross, alas ! by His own 
creatures. For me, and in my place, 
base wretch that I am. He nuderwent 
a most painful and most ignominious 



138 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

death. And shall I pass this daj^ in 
worldly joy, in indulging my senses, 
and in pleasing my appetites by glut- 
tony ? Shall I not on it at least afflict 
myself for those sins by which I cruci- 
fied my Lord ? God forbid I should 
be so ungratefully abandoned and in- 
sensible ! ' Certainly, if any of us, or 
of those who reject with the greatest 
virulence the laws of all regular fasting- 
days, did but seriously meditate on the 
inexpressible torments which our Lord 
sustained for us, it would be, I do not 
say very difficult, but absolutely im- 
possible that we should not be moved 
to afflict ourselves on this day by a 
mournful fast. How much more must 
this have been imj)ossible in those holy 
apostles and disciples who had enjoy- 
ed the happiness of His example and 
conversation, been witnesses to His 
miracles, and heard His divine instruc- 
tion ! " 
Let a man count up the number of 



FASTING. 139 

his personal sins, and lie will then 
know the personal share he had in the 
death of the Son of God. 

On Good Friday let ns offer np some 
special voluntary act of self-denial in 
reparation for the innumerable sins 
committed on the very day on which 
our Redeemer died for sin. 



I 



V. 

Almsdeeds. 



aim0beeb0* 



I. 

Jesus said to His disciples : " When 
the Son of Man shall come in His ma- 
jesty, and all the angels with Him, 
then shall He sit upon the seat of His 
majesty. 

*^And all nations shall be gath- 
ered together before Him : and He shall 
separate them one from another, as the 
shepherd separateth the sheep from 
the goats. 

*^And He shall set the sheep on 
His right hand ; but the goats on His 
left. 

^^Then shall the King say to them 
that shall be on His right hand : Come, 
ye blessed of my Father, possess you 



144 LENTEISr THOUGHTS, 

the kingdom prepared for you from the 
foundation of the world. 

*'For I was hungry, and you gave 
me to eat : I was thirsty, and you gave 
me to drink : I was a stranger, and 
you took me in : 

^' Naked, and you covered me : sick, 
and you visited me : I was in prison, 
and you came to me. 

''Then shall the just answer Him, 
saying : Lord, when did we see Thee 
hungry, and fed Thee ; thirsty, and 
gave Thee drink ? 

''And when did we see Thee a 
stranger, and took Thee in ? or naked, 
and covered Thee ? 

"Or when did we see Thee sick or in 
prison, and came to Thee ? 

" And the King answering, shall say 
to them : Amen I say to you, as long 
as you did it to one of these my least 
brethren, you did it to me. 

"Then shall He say to them also 
that shall be on his left hand : Depart 



ALMSDEEDS. 145 

from me, you cursed, into everlasting 
fire wliich was prepared for the devil 
and his angels. 

''For I was hungry, and you gave 
me not to eat : I was thirsty, and you 
gave me not to drink. 

''I was a stranger, and you took me 
not in : naked, and you covered me 
not : sick and in prison, and you did 
not visit me. 

''Then they also shall answer Him, 
saying : Lord, when did we see Thee 
hungry or thirsty, or a stranger, or 
naked, or sick, or in prison, and did 
not minister to Thee? 

"Then He shall answer them, say- 
ing : Amen I say to you, as long 
as you did it not to one of these 
least, neither did you do it to me. 

"And these shall go into everlast- 
ing punishment ; but the just into life 
everlasting" (Matt. xxv. 31). 



146 LEKTEiq- THOUGHTS. 



II. 



The Gospel shows ns what value God 
sets on works of charity. These works 
are the standard by which He will 
judge all men at the last day. 

St. Augustine thus explains this 
Gospel truth : ''It is written, Redeem 
your sins with alms, because, in effect, 
our Lord loves the charitable above all 
things, and recompenses His elect prin- 
cipally in consideration of the relief 
they have given to the miserable. As 
if He should more clearly say : It is a 
diflS.cult matter diligently to examine 
your life and use mercy towards you ; 
nevertheless, go, enter into the eternal 
kingdom ; for I was hungry, and you 
gave me to eat ; I was thirsty, and you 
gave me to drink ; so that the kingdom 
of heaven is not given to you because 
you have not sinned, but because you 
have redeemed your sins with alms. 
As, on the contrary. He will say to the 



ALMSDEEDS. 147 

wicked : Go, ye accursed, into eternal 
fire^ not only because ye have sinned, 
but also because ye have neglected to 
redeem your sins by alms ; for if you 
had at least used this remedy it would 
have delivered you from the punish- 
ment that is falling upon you." 

St. Peter of Ravenna goes a step fur- 
ther : " It is an admirable thing to see 
how pleasing to God the relief is that 
is given to the poor, since that, in the 
kingdom of heaven, in the presence of 
angels, and in that great assembly of 
men raised from the dead, there is no 
mention of the death that Abel suffer- 
ed, nor of the world which Noe pre- 
served, nor of the faith that Abraham 
had, nor of the law which Moses gave, 
nor of the cross to which St. Peter was 
fastened, but only of the bread that is 
given to the poor." 

The day of judgment will be a day 
of surprises ; but the greatest surprise 
of all will be to see how easily we 



148 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

might have redeemed our sins, how 
easily we might have attained heaven, 
and how we have gone out of our way 
to reach hell. 

^'Charity covereth a multitude of 
sins." 

III. 

Ahnsgiving must be the faithful com- 
panion of fasting. Persons who do 
not fast may give alms more liberally, 
but almsgiving must not merely supply 
the place of fasting. Almsgiving is of 
itself one of the special works of Lent. 

St. Augustine says : ^'Fasting, with- 
out charity and alms, is like a lamp 
which hath no oil." 

St. Peter of Ravenna says : ^^ Though 
fasting takes away the weakness left 
by sin, moderates the passions of the 
flesh, and cuts off many occasions 
which make us fall into disorder, it 
nevertheless restores not health with- 
out the assistance of mercy, charity, 



ALMSDEEDS. 149 

and alms. Fasting cures the wounds 
of sin, but it takes not away wholly 
the scar without the precious balm of 
alms." 

The Fathers all think that fasting 
avails but little if unaccompanied by 
almsgiving. 

Thus St. Chrysostom : ''If you fast 
without giving alms it is not to be re- 
puted a fast.'* 

St. Csesarius of Aries says: ''Fast- 
ing, without alms, is not available un- 
less persons be so poor as to have no- 
thing to give, in whom the good- will is 
sufficient." 

IV. 

Let those who have wealth, and are 
able to perform the work of almsdeeds 
taken literally and in its primary sense, 
remember that they are but stewards, 
and as such will one day be called 
upon to give a strict account of their 
stewardship. 



150 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

Oh that rich men would bear in mind 
this truth ! Money is squandered 
right and left, and no thought is given 
to the account to be one day given to 
God. 

The rich man's dog is often better 
fed and cared for than a child of man. 

I once saw two little dogs at their 
principal meal. The master and mis- 
tress sat at the table, and the two dogs 
sat on the floor. On two plates were 
cut up two large slices of meat taken 
from the joint. Vegetables were add- 
ed, with a little bread and a good deal 
of gravy. When the dogs finished this 
their first course they received each on 
his plate a large piece of pie. If 
any fowl or game was on the table they 
were accustomed to receive the bones 
by way of dessert. 

I was informed that these dogs were 
well-behaved dogs : they were not 
troublesome to visitors ; they never 
begged. 



ALMSDEEBS. 151 

Their appetites astonished me ; and I 
thought of many a poor child in my 
school who in all its lifetime would 
never have such a feast. 

A man of wealth spends a couple of 
hours at his club over a game of cards. 
To put a moderate case, he may win or 
lose, say, $300. He does not consider 
himself a gambler. This is but a drop 
of his wealth. He can easily afford to 
pay this trifling sum for two hours' 
pleasure. 

Trifling as the sum is when compared 
to his entire wealth, it is nevertheless 
in itself a large sum entrusted to him 
by the Giver of all good gifts. 

Let him judge the value of the sum 
by the amount of good that sum is 
capable of doing. He flings it away in 
two hours' pleasure, simply to pass the 
time, he says ; but, trifling as the sum 
is to him, it would add another bed 
or two to our hospitals, a poor family 
could live on it for a whole year. 



152 LEKTEK THOUGHTS. 

Some wish there were no poor. To 
be without the poor would not only 
mean to be without the daily oppor- 
tunities for the display and exercise of 
man's noblest faculties, but also to be 
deprived of one of the most valuable 
and of the easiest means of reaching 
heaven. A poor man takes many an- 
other soul to heaven with him. 

What incalculable wealth may not 
the rich man lay up for himself in hea- 
ven, and with so little difficulty and 
with so little ease ! 

The Grospel tells us this story. 
There is one Dives ! exceedingly rich, 
but no great sin is laid to his charge. 
^o mention is made of any special act 
of cruelty to the poor man Lazarus. 
He gave no thought to the poor man. 
He was wrapped up in himself. Holy 
Writ says he feasted sumptuously and 
was clothed in purple and fine linen. 
Sumptuous raiment, splendid feasts, 
the magnificence of his surroundings, a 



ALMSDEEDS. 153 

crowd of flatterers — such the objects of 
his life. And our Lord tells us the 
tale in a few short but awful words : 
''And the rich man died and was 
buried in hell." 

The poor man Lazarus must have 
possessed virtue and piety, yet no men- 
tion is made of it. He is simply de- 
scribed as a poor man full of sores, ly- 
ing at the rich man's gate, and desir- 
ing to be filled with the crumbs that 
fell from the rich man' s table, and no 
one did give him. But "he was car- 
ried by angels into Abraham's bosom." 
And the rich man, who refused the 
crumbs, has for so many ages been 
asking for one drop of water, which has 
never been given to him. 

What crumbs of wealth the rich man 
scatters, little thinking of the poor 
who only ask for the crumbs ! 

There is a poor-box in every church. 
Sometimes a special box is placed for 
Lenten alms. Few know of the many 



154 LEi^TEK THOUGHTS. 

and varied calls made on a priest in 
every large city. How often his sick 
and poor stand in need of tliis or that 
thing, and he has not wherewith to 
snj)ply the need ! 

Day by day in Lent we call on God 
for mercy. God is liberal to us ; let us 
be liberal and generous wdtli temporal 
goods. We ask for mercy, but we can- 
not hope to receive it unless we our- 
selves are merciful. 

' ' Blessed are the merciful, for they 
shall obtain mercy." 

V. 

We love and admire the charitable 
rich man. When he is gone we miss 
him. The poor weep for him. 

Some one has said that no place tells 
so many lies as a cemetery. A stran- 
ger once, after reading the epitaphs on 
the stones in a cemetery, quietly ask- 
ed: '^And where are the bad people 
buried?" 



ALMSDEEUS. 155 

''He was charitable to the poor." 
The richest and greatest of the sons of 
men could not ask for a more beautiful 
epitaph. No words could be a surer 
pledge of eternal life. 

"Alms deliver from all sin and from 
death, and will not suffer the soul to 
go into darkness '' (Tob. iv. 2). 

" As water quenches fire, so alms re- 
sisteth sin" (Ecclus. iii. 33). 

''Alms . . . shall obtain help for thee 
against all evil. Better than the shield 
of the mighty, and better than the 
spear ; it shall fight for thee against 
thy enemy" (Ecclus. xxix. 16, 17). 

"Prayer is good with fasting and 
alms, for alms delivereth from death, 
and shall purge away all sin" (Job. 
xii. 78). 

King Nabuchodonosor incurred a ter- 
rible judgment, and as a remedy Dan- 
iel counselled him to have recourse to 
the sacred anchor of alms. " O king ! " 
says the prophet, "take my counsel, 



156 LEKTEi;r THOUGHTS. 

redeem thy sins with alms, and en- 
deavor to obtain the pardon of thy ini- 
qnities by works of mercy towards the 
poor" (Dan. iv. 27). 

St. Ambrose says : " The force of alms 
is wonderful ; it is a living spring which 
with its waters quenches the flames of 
our vices, and by its effusion, as that of 
a great river, puts out the fire of our 
sins ; so that, though Grod be offended, 
though He be justly provoked to wrath. 
He j)ardons, for the sake of their alms, 
those whom He had resolved to punish 
for their oft'ences." 

St. Chrysostom in one of his ser- 
mons says : ''Almsgiving is a friend of 
God ; she is always about Him ; she ob- 
tains graces for whom she will ; she 
breaks the bands of sin ; she drives 
away darkness ; she stifles the flames 
of our passions ; the gates of heaven 
are open to her ; those that keep them 
respect her as a queen ; tliey ask not 
who she is or w^hat she seeks ; all go to 



ALKSDEEDS. 157 

meet her and receive her with joy ; she 
is a virgin ; she has wings of gold and 
her apparel is wonderfully glorions ; 
her countenance is beautiful and full 
of sweetness ; her swiftness and the 
wings she wears in a moment bring her 
into God's presence." 

St. Augustine says: ''Brethren, give 
alms, and your prayers shall be heard. 
Jesus Christ will help you to amend 
your lives, He will pardon you your 
past sins, He w^ill deliver you from 
futui^ evils, and He will give you eter- 
nal good things." 

In the records of the earlier ages we 
read that the ^' fasters partook of food 
so common and cheap as to occasion a 
great saving in the expenses of the 
table, all which was laid out in more 
abundant alms." So nowadays a fast- 
er, unless he brings delicacies and ex- 
pensive fruits to his table, will save by 
fasting, and with what he saves he 
can, without any great self-sacrifice, 



158 LEKTEK THOUGHTS. 

perform the second work of Lent, that 
of almsgiving. 

yi. 

Under almsdeeds come all the works 
of mercy. There is no man so poor, 
then, who cannot perform this good 
work. 

The poor, pinched as they are by 
poverty, often perform the work of 
almsgiving literally. Who that has 
worked among the poor has not often 
seen the poor man divide his last mor- 
sel of bread and his last coin with an- 
other ? 

They snffer so mnch, God help them ! 
that they have more than their share 
of fellow-feeling and sympathy for 
those in distress, and when they have 
no morsel of bread to give they give 
their tears. 

When we are nnable to assist with 
temporal goods the poor, the sick, and 
the suffering, we have it still in our 



ALMDEEDS. 159 

power to perform one or other of the 
spiritual and corporal works of mer- 
cy. We can assist them with our 
counsels and prayers. We can at least 
have a fellow-feeling for their suffer- 
ings. 

St. Gregory says: ^^He whose heart 
is touched with compassion gives no 
less than he who exercises liberality 
towards the poor ; for the one gives his 
wealth, and the other his sonl, which 
is much more precious than all world- 
ly wealth." 

St. Augustine says: ^^Of all the 
works of mercy with which we may 
obtain pardon for our sins, there is 
none greater or more prevalent than 
willingly to pardon those who have 
offended us." 

St. Peter Chrysologus says: "Con- 
sider, brethren, that you cannot be 
without sin, and that you always de- 
sire your sins should be forgiven you ; 
if you will, then, be forgiven, you must 



160 LEKTEIs^ THOUGHTS. 

forgive, and so know that your happi- 
ness is in your own hands, and that in 
pardoning others you pardon your- 
selves." 

St. Caesarius says : ''If you have not 
wherewithal to relieve the captives or 
clothe the naked, be at least very care- 
ful to banish out of your heart all kind 
of ill-will against your neighbor. Ren- 
der not to your enemies evil for evil ; 
on the contrary, love them and pray for 
them. Living thus, ground yourself 
securely on the mercy and promises of 
God, and fear not to say to Him with 
confidence : Give me, O Lord, for I 
have given ; pardon me because I have 
pardoned." 

VIL 

The spiritual works of mercy are : 
1. To admonish the sinner ; 2. To in- 
struct the ignorant ; 3. To counsel the 
doubtful; 4. To comfort the sorrow- 
ful : 5. To bear wrongs patiently ; 



ALMSDEEDS. 161 

6. To forgive all injuries : 7. To pray 
for the living and the dead. 

The corporal works of mercy are : 
1. To feed the hungry ; 2. To give drink 
to the thirsty ; 3. To clothe the naked ; 

4. To visit and ransom the captives ; 

5. To harbor the harborless ; 6. To vis- 
it the sick ; 7. To bury the dead. 

A few thoughts occur to us espe- 
cially pertinent to the second of the 
spiritual works of mercy — viz., to in- 
struct the ignorant. 

An easy and most precious way of 
giving alms is here opened to those 
whom God has blessed with temporal 
goods. 

Reading nourishes and moulds the 
mind and the heart of man. It saves 
or destroys. 

The number of readers is many times 
greater than it was a few years ago, 
and the number is daily increasing. 

Satan is never found wanting. Idle- 
ness is a fruitful battle-field of his. If 



162 LENTEI^ THOUGHTS. 

people take to reading he is at hand 
to supply the want. We must meet 
him with his own weapons. 

Had printing existed in the days 
of the apostles it would have been a 
powerful weapon in their hands, and 
depend upon it they would not have 
been slow to discover some v/ay of 
using it. 

There can be no doubt that in these 
days of dime-novels, of cheap and cor- 
rupt literature, the circulation of good, 
wholesome literature amongst the peo- 
ple is an eminently important feature 
in the work of the Cliurch. 

VIII. 

There are Protestant societies which 
spend annually large sums in the cir- 
culation of Bibles and books. Their 
zeal in the diffusion of books is prover- 
bial. In this matter we can afford to 
take a leaf out of their book. 



ALMSDEEDS. 163 

In the absence of any organized so- 
ciety the individual, with means, can 
do much. 

Members of a congregation are some- 
times asked to teach in Sunday-school. 
They are not theologians, and are there- 
fore naturally timid in coming forward. 

I once tried the effect of reading at 
Sunday-school. Each teacher, male or 
female member of the congregation, 
had a class, and, after hearing the 
words of the catechism assigned for the 
day's lesson, read to the class some 
Catholic story. Afterwards, in the 
church, the children had a catecheti- 
cal instruction from the priest, wliich 
served for their Sunday sermon. 

The effect was good — the teachers and 
children were greatly interested, and 
the number of Sunday scholars was 
doubled. There was only one draw- 
back ; the mission was poor, and mj^ 
means would not allow me to continue 
the supi^ly of books. 



164 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

I know a lady wlio^ every year at 
Christmas^ gives her pastor a supply of 
Catholic almanacs for the ensuing year, 
one for each member of the congrega- 
tion. It is all she can afford, but the 
gift is highly appreciated by pastor and 
people. 

We read, every noAv and then, of the 
apathy displayed by Catholics in the 
purchase of Catholic literature. 

Speaking for the bulk of the people, 
I would say that, if we would put some 
life into the circulation of Catholic lit- 
erature, let the books in some way be 
brought to the people. 

It is the custom of certain mission- 
ary fathers, when giving a mission, to 
have in the porch of the church a stall 
well supplied with good, useful books. 
From the pulpit they recommend 
these books, and the stall has to be 
refurnished several times during the 
mission. 

I have a book before me now, and 



ALMSDEEDS. 165 

the cover tells me that forty thou- 
sand copies have been sold. Mne 
hundred out of every thousand were 
disposed of in the way I have just 
mentioned. 

Those who have the means certainly 
have it in their power to perform in a 
truly effective manner, at the present 
day, the spiritual work of mercy of 
instructing the ignorant. 

They may give to their pastor a num- 
ber of copies of a book which com- 
mends itself to them, or of a book 
suggested by the pastor, to be dis- 
tributed among the poor, the negli- 
gent, and the sick of the parish. 

A man may thus sometimes distrib- 
ute, at little cost to himself, a hundred 
copies of a useful book among a hun- 
dred negligent Catholics. Who can 
foretell the good this act may produce ? 
The giver may hope to be the means of 
saving at least one soul out of the hun- 
dred. 



166 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

This is to co-operate in the work of 
the salvation of souls. A man can do 
no higher work in this world, and He 
who died for souls has declared that 
even a cup of water given in His name 
shall not go unrewarded. 



VI. 

Prayer. 



Iprai^ec 



^^Two men went up into the temple 
to pray : the one a Pharisee, and the 
other a publican : 

'' The Pharisee, standing, prayed 
thus with himself : O Grod, I give Thee 
thanks that I am not as the rest of 
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, 
as also is this publican. 

" I fast twice in a week ; I give 
tithes of all that I possess. 

" And the publican, standing afar off, 
would not so much as lift up his eyes 
towards heaven, but struck his breast, 
saying : O God, be merciful to me a 
sinner. 

^'I say to you, this man went down 



170 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

into Ms house justified rather than the 
other" (St. Luke xviii. 10). 

The prayer of the Pharisee is elab- 
orate, but it is full of arrogance and 
pride. He has naught but contempt 
for sinners, for the poor publican in 
particular, whom he rashly and unjust- 
ly judges and condemns. 

He prays as if he were paying a 
compliment to the Creator, who surely 
ought to 'be honored in having given 
existence to such a creature. 

In his elaborate words, so full of con- 
ceit, there is no prayer. He asks for 
nothing. He not only goes away empty 
from the temple, but in a worse state 
than when he entered it. 

The poor publican knows himself 
and know^s what he wants. He sees 
the hideousness of sin, and he feels 
what a sinner he is in the sight of 
God. 

He thinks of no one else. He hides 
himself in an obscure part of the tern- 



PRAYER. - 171 

pie. He does not even raise Ms eyes 
towards heaven. 

His heart is bruised with sorrow, and 
all he can do is to strike his breast and 
murmur : God, be merciful to me a 
sinner.^ 

Simple words, yet all that was need- 
ed ; and he went home justified. 

II. 

Almighty God knows our wants far 
better than we do ourselves. Like a 
fond father, He has a keen sense of our 
miseries ; but He wishes that we should 
be sensible ourselves of our wants and 
miseries, and fly to Him for relief. 

The helplessness of our fallen nature, 
our manifold necessities and dangers, 
the temptations of the devil, the world, 
and the flesh, are proofs of the neces- 
sity of prayer. 

To avoid the occasions of sin, to 
frequent the sacraments, to hear the 



173 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

word of God, to meditate on the eter- 
nal truths — these are so many means of 
keeping ourselves in a state of grace. 
These means, however, will be of little 
profit to us if we forget to pray. 

At the time of confession we make a 
resolution to overcome such and such a 
fault, or to practise such and such a vir- 
tue. At our next confession there is the 
same old tale of broken promises and 
unkept resolutions. We made the pro- 
mise, certainly, and we formed the re- 
solution, but we forgot the one all-im- 
portant thing — we never praj^ed for 
help to enable us to keep our resolu- 
tion. No wonder we failed. 

To do any real, actual good, to over- 
come temptation, or to practise virtue, 
we require the actual assistance of God. 
It is not enough to meditate and to 
make resolutions ; we must have the 
actual assistance of God, and God 
only gives this to those who pray for 
it. 



PRAYER. 173 

Unless we pray we shall always be 
niifaitlif ul to the promises we make to 
God. 

Luther and Calvin declared that the 
fall of Adam made it impossible for 
man to keep God's law. They blas- 
phemed. 

Jansenius tanght that some precepts 
were impossible even to the just. He 
was condemned by the Church. 

The Council of Trent declares that 
God does not command impossibili- 
ties. 

It is certain that the observance of 
the law is morally impossible without 
the assistance of God. 

''We believe," says St. Augustine, 
"that no one comes to be saved except 
by the call of God, that no one who 
is called works out his salvation except 
by the assistance of God, and that no 
one merits this assistance except by 
prayer." 

Theologians conclude that, in tlie 



174 LEKTEK THOUGHTS. 

ordinary course of Providence, no 
Christian can be saved without asking 
God for the graces necessary for sal- 
vation. 

''Prayer," says an author, '4s the 
breath of the soul. Just as breathing- 
is the sign of life, so is prayer the sign 
of life in the soul." 

The soul, lil^e the body, requires 
food. Grace is the food of the soul. 
Without grace the soul cannot live, 
and without prayer grace cannot or- 
dinarily be obtained. 

"Ask, and you shall receive; seek, 
and you shall find." "Whatsoever 
you shall ask the Father in my name, 
it shall be given you." "You have 
not," says St. James, "because you 
ask not." 

We may, then, sum up the necessity 
of prayer in one word. A man who 
prays will be saved, and the man 
who does not pray will be lost. 



PBAYER. 175 



III. 



Prayer is a gift of God. You say 
you find it difficult to pray. Have 
you ever asked God to teach you how 
to pray ? 

There is much reading of prayer- 
books, but little prayer. To read a 
prayer book is certainly one way of 
praying. But at most a prayer-book 
is simply an aid to prayer. 

Some people select a prayer-book, 
not because the words in it best ex- 
press their own wants and feelings, 
but because the words are pretty. 

In using a prayer-book you repeat 
w^ords which express the feelings of 
the person who composed the prayer. 
You must ask for exactly what those 
words express. Sometimes the words 
will express your own feelings, very 
often they will not. 

Our wants are as various as men's 
faces. You want charity. Another 



176 LEXTEis" THOUGHTS. 

wants patience. A temptation which 
does not occur to another is something 
very grave and real to you. 

At other times our hearts are too full 
for words. We simply wish to kneel 
before the Blessed Sacrament, and let 
God see into our hearts. 

Many unprofitable words are uttered 
by the lips, and much time is lost, be- 
cause we forget that prayer means ask- 
ing. To pray is to ask. 

All that we really need is to know 
our faults and to realize our wants. 
We need have no anxiety about words. 
Let us know and thoroughly feel our 
wants, and the words the most suit- 
able will come of themselves. 

The little child does not think for 
words when it wants bread. If it can- 
not speak it makes signs, and the mo- 
tlier instinctively supplies the want. 

On Sunday last you attended the 
Divine Sacrifice of the Mass. What 
particular grace did you ask for? 



PKAYER. 177 

You read a certain number of pages 
of your prayer-book, but when you 
went down to your house you could 
not call to mind that you had asked 
for any particular favor or grace. 

The Sacrifice of the Mass is a con- 
tinuation of the Sacrifice of Calvary. 
It differs only in form. That of Cal- 
vary was a bloody sacrifice ; the Sacri- 
fice of the Mass is an unbloody sacri- 
fice. 

Had we knelt on Calvary we should 
have thought of many things to ask for. 

Surely there is no better time for 
asking favors of God than during the 
Sacrifice of the Mass. How comes it, 
then, that we assist at this adorable 
Sacrifice Sunday after Sunday and are 
still what we are ? 

We enter the church and we want 
many graces. We are uncharitable, 
we are selfish, we are unkind in our 
thoughts and words ; we have an ill- 
feeling towards this person, an aversion 



178 LENTEN THOUGHTS. 

to that person, and so forth ; and we 
leave the church as empty as when we 
entered it, simply because we have 
failed to ask for what we want. 

We perhaps ask God, in a general 
way, to make us good. The prayer in 
our prayer-book speaks of the exalted 
virtues of St. Joseph or of the sub- 
lime love of St. Francis. We pray 
for these sublime virtues, forgetting 
that the saints, before reaching these 
heights of virtue, had to pray and 
struggle, perhaps for years, to over- 
come the common faults which we 
daily commit. 

Thus a man asks for a saint's love of 
God, a saint's resignation, and the first 
thing he does when he leaves the 
church is to make some unkind remark 
about his neighbor. As if a beggar 
were to crave for some rich, expensive 
delicacy, when all the time he is starv- 
ing and dying for want of a piece of 
bread. 



PRAYER. 179 

Again, how often do we pray for the 
grace of final perseverance? ''He 
only who perseveres to the end shall 
be saved." We may be worthy of 
love to-day, and to-morrow may com- 
mit a deadly sin, which, in a moment, 
destroys a life of virtue built up in 
years. 

If we desire to make progress w^e 
must realize our own individual wants 
and miseries, and present them to our 
Father in heaven, asking His aid and 
assistance. 

IV. 

We require no grand language when 
we wish to address God. To at- 
tempt it is offensive to God, and our 
prayer approaches that of the Pha- 
risee. 

When we praj^ let us speak to God 
as a child to his father. 

How different is the Lord's Prayer 
from all of human composition ! Yet 



180 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

He who composed the prayer had infi- 
nite knowledge. 

It is so simple that a child can un- 
derstand every word of it. 

It is the most perfect model of pray- 
er, and contains in itself all the pray- 
ers ever composed by man. St. Au- 
gustine says : ^'If you run through all 
the words of other prayers you will 
find nothing in them that is not con- 
tained in the ^Our Father.'" 

When we address God directly we 
must pray in the name of Jesus. The 
Church concludes all her prayers with 
the words, " through our Lord Jesus 
Christ." 

By the sin of Adam we lost our in- 
heritance and became unacceptable to 
God. Jesus Christ, by His Passion 
and death, bought back our inheri- 
tance and made us once more pleasing 
to God. It is only, then,- because of 
His death, it is only through His name, 
that we or our prayers are acceptable 



PBAYEE. 181 

to God. Hence we are promised every- 
thing we ask for in that all-saving 
name. 

We mnst pray with humility, for 
God resists the proud and gives His 
grace only to the humble. 

We must pray with attention, for 
prayer is the raising-up of the mind 
and heart to God. We cannot help 
distractions, but we can prevent our 
minds resting on them. To pray with 
wilful distraction is to receive nothing 
and to offend God. 

We must pray with confidence. The 
frequent repetition of our Lord's pro- 
mise shows us how anxious God is to 
give us His gifts. 

He is our Father, and we are His 
children. 

''Whatsoever you shall ask'' — He 
places no limit to His promise. 

If a rich banker were to promise to 
supply all your worldly needs on one 
condition— that you should ask for 



182 LEKTEN THOUGHTS. 

money when you wanted it — needless 
to say you would never want. 

Jesus Christ, who has made the pro- 
mise to us, is omnipotent and able to 
fulfil His promise. 

Let us pray, then, with unbounded 
confidence, ''for no one hath hoped in 
the Lord and been confounded."' 

We must pray with perseverance. 
God's gi^aces cannot be valued. Our 
conduct as a rule is not such as to in- 
duce God to give us His gifts when we 
first ask for them. A gift so easily 
given might be lightly valued and easi- 
ly lost. We often have to ask, time 
after time, for some gift from an earth- 
ly father. When we do receive it we 
appreciate it all the more. 

y. 

Prayer is the most necessary of the 
satisfactory works ; it is the most pow- 
erful arm of penance. 

Fasting and almsdeeds are her two 



PEAYEB. 183 

sisters, from wMcli she must not be 
separated. They are the wings on 
which prayer soars to heaven. 

Pasting and prayer are mutual sup- 
ports. Fasting fits the soul for prayer, 
and prayer enables the soul to bear 
cheerfully the severities of the fast. 

St. Bernard says: ^^ Prayer gives 
strength to fasting, and fasting obtains 
grace to pray." 

St. Jerome says : ^' By fasting the 
vices of the body are cured, and by 
prayer the infirmities of the soul." 

St. John Climacus says: *'The soul 
of him that fasts prays with sobriety 
and attention ; but the soul of an in- 
temperate and sensual person is always 
full of imaginations and evil thoughts." 

Again the same saint says: ^^ If you 
have a love for prayer you will w ithout 
doubt also have a love for mercy ; for 
the first will cause God to hear you 
mercifully, because you have, for His 
sake, heard your neighbor." 



184 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

What we want most in Lent is sor- 
row for sin. Prayer is especially use- 
ful to obtain this sorrow. The poor 
publican and the prodigal child were 
pardoned on the soIq consideration of 
their prayers. 

VI. 

Prayer is one of the works of Lent, 
and under the good work of prayer are 
comprised all the exercises of religion 
and piety. 

We do not adequately perform the 
work of prayer in Lent, if we simply 
confine ourselves to oral prayer. 

Special services are held in Lent. 
They form part of the good work of 
prayer, and we ought to attend them. 

A person who realizes the value of 
Lent will endeavor to hear Mass every 
day, even though it cost hiai a little in- 
convenience. 

He will be careful to hear as many 
sermons as he can. Unfortunately 



PRAYER. 185 

many people pass montlis without 
hearing the word of God. The priest 
is bound to preach the word of God, 
but not, certainly, to empty benches. 
There must be, then, some obligation 
on the part of the faithful of hearing 
the word of God. 

It will be no excuse, at the day of 
judgment, to say that we didn't know 
that such and such was a sin, or we 
didn't know we were obliged to do this 
or that. 

Read carefully again the Gosj)el at 
the head of Almsgiving. We are bound 
to know what we are to do, and what; 
we are to avoid in order to save our 
souls. Some people cannot read, others 
say they have not time to read ; their 
only source of instruction is the ser- 
mon. 

Let us try and devote at least half an 
hour each day in Lent to spiritual 
reading, a book of instruction or the 
life of a saint. 



186 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

There is no one so busy who cannot 
pray at least orally. Sometimes people 
say they have no time to pray. Have 
they time to breathe ? Breathing is 
not more necessarj^ for the life of the 
body than prayer for the life of the 
soul. 

The saints prayed continually, and 
found time to attend all the services of 
the Church. They were chosen from 
every class and condition of life. They 
had families to look after and business 
to attend to. 

David was a king and had the care 
of a kingdom, yet he prayed seven 
times a day. 

It would be a good thing, at the out- 
set of Lent, to resolve to make frequent 
use of indulgenced prayers. We labor 
hard in Lent to reduce the punishment 
due to our sins. 

Take the three hundred dfiys' in- 
dulgence attached to the short pray- 
ers ordered by our Holv Father to 



PRAYER. 187 

be said after Mass. If a person hears 
Mass daily during the forty days of 
Lent, and joins in the recital of these 
prayers, this indulgence of three hun- 
dred days mounts up at the close of 
Lent to an indulgence of twelve thou- 
sand days, or to an indulgence of 
close upon thirty-three years. 

The source of the strength of the 
Church of God is the great, all-holy 
Sacrifice of the Mass. 

Doubtless our Holy Father, when 
he gave us these indulgenced prayers, 
intended to encourage the faithful to 
make the practice of hearing Mass a 
part of their daily devotions. 
' Let us pray, in Lent, for light to 
know ourselves, for true sorrow for sin, 
for the conversion of sinners, for final 
perseverance, for a happy death. 

Let us pray for grace to overcome our 
individual faults and temptations, and 
for the graces and virtues suitable to 
the positions we hold in this world. 



188 LEl^TEi^ THOUGHTS. 

Let US, by praj^er, by entreaty, and 
by example, encourage the negligent ; 
and let each one pray, each day in 
Lent, that the negligent members of his 
own congregation may be brought to 
their Easter duties. 



VII. 

Easter Duties. 



jBnstev Duties. 



I. 



St. Chrysostom says : '' The Fathers, 
being aware of the dangers and mis- 
chiefs of rashly approaching the Holy 
Table, appointed these forty days to be 
spent in fasting, prayer, hearing the 
word of God, and meeting together in 
I)ublic prayer; that in these days, by 
devotion, almsdeeds, fasting, watching, 
tears, confession, and all other means, 
every one may carefully cleanse and 
adorn his soul, in order to partake of 
the Paschal Communion with a pure 
conscience. Now, from this time I pro- 
claim aloud and conjure you for the 
sake of your souls ; I forewarn you, lest 
when the time of the heavenly banquet 



192 LEVTEy THOrGHTS, 

sliall come any should not have made 
the necessary preparation/' 

The end of the fasting, almsdeeds, 
and prayer of L^nt is to i)repare ns for 
a contrite and hnmble confession of 
onr sins, and to fit ns to i^eceive worth- 
ily and devoutly the Holy (.^ommnnion 
at Easter. 

We have shown that there is no 
Christian so poor, so busy, or so infirm 
who cannot perform all the works of 
Lent. 

Interior penance consists in self-ex- 
amination, the review of our conscien- 
ces, and in the consideration of all our 
duties. 

St. Bernard says: ** Often under 
the exterior weeds of penance a man 
is a slave of self-wilU and by covet- 
ousness, vanity, or ambition an idola- 
ter of the mammon, false glory, or 
Imnor of the world. TTliich danger 
if we would shun we must lay the 
axe to the root of the trees, and not 



EASTER DUTIES 193 

content ourselves witli lopping the 
branches," 

We must probe our wounds to the 
bottom and not spare ourselves ; other- 
wise our vices will only die with us. 



II. 



We have said that in Lent we are 
called upon to take account of our- 
selves before God, to see how we stand 
before Him, 

The case of the blind man mentioned 
in the Gospel of Quinquagesima teach- 
es us our first duty — viz., to ask for 
light, that we may see and thoroughly 
search into ourselves. 

In Lent we consider the state of our 
souls, the progress we have made since 
last Lent, the commandments and ob- 
ligations we have most frequently 
broken, the occasions which have led 
us into sin. 

What private prayers have I said 



19^ LEXTEN THOUGHTS. 

since last Lent ? In what manner have 
I said my morning and evening pray- 
ers ? Have I sometimes neglected 
them ? 

What wonder if we fall into sin on 
the day on wh.icli we neglect onr morn- 
ing prayer? 

We owe this morning and evening 
prayer to God. The common excuse 
for neglect is want of time, but this ex- 
cuse will not avail us. In fifteen sec- 
onds you can say well the ''Our Fa- 
ther.^- In three minutes you can make 
a good morning prayer. 

I once received a poor woman into 
the Church on her deathbed, and I 
tried hard to find in the story of her 
life some clue to th^ great grace of 
conversion. 

I found that in her lifetime she had 
never neglected morning and evening 
prayer. One night she was unwell and 
got into bed without saying her pray- 
ers. She was unwell, it was winter 



EASTER DUTIES. 195 

and veiy cold, and she had no fire. 
She began to think of the sufferings of 
Christ. Suddenly she said to herself : 
^'What a coward I am! He suffered 
so much, and I am afraid of a little 
cold." She at once arose and said her 
night-prayers. This faithful and life- 
long observance of morning and even- 
ing prayer was the only clue I dis- 
covered to the great grace she received 
on her deathbed. 

What prayers of devotion have I 
said since last Lent ? Have I said any 
special prayers in honor of Our Lady ? 
Have I prayed to my patron saint ? 
Have I prayed for the souls in purga- 
tory ? What prayers have I said for 
my family? for the conversion of sin- 
ners ? Have I tried to gain indulgen- 
ces ? Have I asked for grace to over- 
come my faults, to meet my special 
temptations? Have I prayed for the 
grace of final perseverance ? Have I 
prayed for a holy death ? 



196 LEKTEK THOUGHTS* 



III. 



Have I done anything in the way of 
mental prayer or spiritual reading? 
How often have I heard the word of 
God? 

In what manner have I kept the Sun- 
day ? God gives to man six days, and 
reserves one for Himself. 

If a man simply hears a Low Mass on 
Sunday and spends the rest of the day 
in idleness, he can hardly be said to 
keep the Sunday holy. The churches 
should not be left only half -filled in 
the evening. 

Simply to do what we are obliged to 
is to act very ungenerously towards 
God. 

We refrain from work on Sunday, in 
order that we may have time and op- 
portunity for going to the sacraments, 
hearing instruction, and reading good 
books. 

No Catholic should ever have to con- 



EASTER DUTIES. 197 

fess wilful neglect of Mass on Sun- 
day, 

We must examine the confessions we 
have made and the communions re- 
ceived since last Lent, How have 1 
prepared for my confessions ? Have I, 
after each confession, thanked God for 
healing my spiritual diseases ? 

Have my communions been fervent 
and devout ? Have I allowed the 
great festivals to pass without receiv- 
ing Holy Communion ? 

Have I kept the fast and abstinence 
days? What voluntary penance have 
I done ? In what manner have I per- 
formed the work of almsdeeds during 
the past year ? 

We must examine our ordinary ac- 
tions, such as our conversations and 
recreations. What has our conduct 
been in time of sickness, in sorrow, and 
in trial? 

Then, again, there are the particular 
duties of our state and calling — the 



198 LENTEK THOUGHTS. 

duties of the parent, the child, the 
husband, the wife, the master, and the 
servant. 

Again, there are our general duties^ 
towards all neighbors, of justice and 
charity. 

How have we performed the spiritual 
and corporal works of mercy ? 

Such an examination will enable us 
to see ourselves thoroughly. We shall 
see what progress we have made, what 
sins we have committed — ^in a word, 
how we stand before God. 

It is by no means necessary for a per- 
son to make a general confession in 
Lent. But it is a good practice, in our 
Lenten confession, to give a sort of re- 
view of the past year, to mention the 
sin we have most frequently committed 
and the manner in which we have kept 
the resolutions of last Lent, so that our 
confessor may see what progress we 
have made. 

If we perform faithfully the works of 



EASTER DUTIES* 199 

Lent we cannot fail to liave true sor- 
row for our sins. 

IV. 

We close Lent with the highest and 
holiest action a Christian is capable 
of performing— that of receiving the 
Body and Blood of his Lord and Grod. 

It is not within my province here to 
speak of the dispositions necessary for 
worthily receiving Holy Communion. 
But I would recommend the reader to 
obtain and read Monseigneur Segur's 
little books on ''Communion'^ and on 
' ' Frequent Communion. ' ' 

If we are faithful in the observance 
of Lent we shall be thoroughly well 
disposed at Easter. 

When we make our Easter duties 
let us offer our Divine Lord the resolu- 
tions we have made during Lent. 

He rose from the grave on Easter 
day ; on that day we must rise from 
sin. He rose to die no more : ''death 



200 LEXTEX THOUGHTS. 

had no more dominion over Him." 
Our resurrection from sin must like- 
wise be real and permanent. 

He fasted for forty days, and then 
the devil came and temj)ted Him. He 
overcame the temprer. We shall go 
forth from Lent full of strength and 
courage after the use of the powerful 
weapons of Lent, pref)ared for the 
tempter, but with no fear of him, full 
of hope for the future, determined to 
lead holy lives. 

Holiness is demanded of every one. 
We must not be frightened at the 
word holy. Some imagine that sanc- 
tity belongs to priests and religious. 
Vain fancy, which has cost many a 
man his soul. 

St. Panl says we are all called to be 
sanctified, else we shall not enter into 
the kingdom of heaven. '* The will of 
God is your sancrification." 

'^Star diftereth from star in glory." 
God requires a greater holiness from 



EASTER DUTIES. 201 

the priest than from the man of the 
world. 

It is not necessary to work miracles. 
We are not told that Our Blessed Lady 
or St. John the Baptist ever wrought 
any miracles in their lifetime. 

The saints spent days and nights in 
prayer, and gave themselves np to 
severe fasts and mortifications. These 
are the works of certain saints, but 
they do not define a saint. 

The word saint means holy. God 
has placed you in a certain position in 
this world, and in that position He 
wishes you to work out your salvation. 

Do the will of God in the position in 
which He has placed you, and you are 
holy in His sight. 

Let those who have not been to con- 
fession since last Lent, or for a long 
time, make their confessions as early as 
possible in Lent. 



202 LEXTEN THOUGHTS. 

Holy AVeek is a very liard week for 
the priests. Immense numbers attend 
tlie confessionals on Holy Satiirday. 
And those who have not been to con- 
fession for a lono; time must know that 
their confessions will take a longer time 
to make. Let them go to confession 
early in Lent, when the work of the 
confessional is lighter. 

'No matter how long the time is ex- 
tended, there are always some who put 
oif their Easter duties to the last mo- 
ment. They run a very serious risk of 
missing their Easter duties. Some- 
thing may turn up in the night to pre- 
vent their going to church ; they may 
fall sick, or the numbers of penitents 
at the church ma^^ be more than the 
priests can possibly hear. 

The ordinary time for making the 
Easter duties is from Ash- Wednesday 
to Low Sunday. In Ireland generally, 
and in England locally, the time is ex- 
tended. Here in the United States 



EASTER DUTIES. 203 

the time for fulfilling our E:ister du- 
ties is from the first Sunday of Lent till 
Trinity Sunday. 

Many saints, knowing how suddenly 
and unexpectedly death comes, were 
accustomed to make their Easter duties 
on the first day of Lent. 

No man can feel happy who, when 
Easter comes, has not made his Easter 
duties. 

What shall we say of the man who 
wilfully neglects to make his Easter 
duties ? 

The Church threatens him with ex- 
communication. He disobeys his 
Church in a gTave matter, and she 
threatens to treat him as an out- 
cast. 

We are bound to obey the command- 
ments of the Church, because Christ 
has said to the Pastors of His Church : 
He that heareth you, heareth me ; and 
he that despiseth you, despiseth me " 
(Luke X. 16). 



204 LElsTEN THOUGHTS. 

Again, let him call to mind the teach- 
ing of his catechism. 

It is a sin to break the command- 
ments of the Church, for Christ has 
said: ^^If he will not hear the 
Church, let him be to thee as the heath- 
en and publican " (Matt xviii 17), 



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